University of Lincoln staff are preparing to strike on Friday. This move follows the proposal of layoffs that would affect up to 285 jobs from 7 different City Departments. The university’s management has targeted job cuts in the Lincoln International Business School and the department of History. This announcement has raised a huge alarm from faculty.
Dr Owen Clayton, branch chair, University and College Union (UCU) He made clear that the reason for the industrial action is because the university won’t agree to not make compulsory redundancies. He said that he found the proposed cuts troubling. This is especially shocking in light of the institution’s dramatic growth in other sectors and its ongoing campus expansion efforts.
“The university claims they need to do this for financial reasons yet, at the same time, is hiring people and opening up new areas,” Dr. Clayton commented. For one, he called extreme discontent with how the decision is being reached, which he argues is contrary to the university’s ostensible financial justification for doing so.
The University of Lincoln had originally said that the 285 job cuts would be a “worst-case scenario.” Faculty are still very concerned about what these ideas could mean if the proposals pass. As Dr. Clayton explained, this means that strikers would determine a picket line. This demonstrates a strong collective action from university employees against the anticipated compulsory workforce reduction.
The university has stated that the changes are necessary to respond to “growing areas of student demand and the changing needs of our communities.” They have mentioned efforts “to mitigate the need for compulsory redundancies,” but concerns linger among faculty regarding the impact on educational quality and student engagement.
Dr. Clayton further highlighted that the current situation is exacerbated by the trend of “pushing to have larger and larger class sizes.” He mentioned that removing the flexibility would make achieving a more personalized education more difficult and deprive many students of better outcomes.
As the strike date draws near, faculty are mobilizing to demonstrate their opposition to the planned layoffs. Whatever the outcome, this industrial action will have significant repercussions for all those directly involved. It will ripple through the broader environment of the UK higher education sector, which is already in the throes of transformative change.
