STAFF at the University of Edinburgh have been sent an email warning them of possible cuts amid a “financial challenge”.
The email, sent yesterday from Principal Peter Mathieson, blamed “external circumstances beyond our control” for the £140m financial gap that the institution finds itself in.
The university, ranked one of the top 50 in the world, is forecasted to be in “operational deficit for the coming years”.
Staff have been urged to sign up to the university’s voluntary severance scheme which, after having been extended, closes this week.
Some of the many factors that the university say have contributed to their lack of funds include post-Covid supply-chain issues, reduction in the attractiveness of the UK to international students, and the currency crisis in Nigeria.
They state: “The magnitude of the financial gap that we need to close over the next 18 months is about 10% of our annual turnover, which is a similar percentage to the position of many other universities.”
They say the size of this gap is £140m, which is £20m more than it costs to run the university each month.
Though staff have already been given the option to take voluntary severance, which would see them receiving a payment for terminating their employment at the university, this has now been confirmed to “not be enough on its own”.
There will therefore be “university-wide actions which will also result in a smaller staff base”, meaning that staff jobs are at risk as an earlier email stated, “nothing is off the table”, not even the closure of certain schools.
The email states “we fully recognise the anxiety and uncertainty that the current circumstances will be creating for all of you” but go on to say that “bold and decisive actions now are key to reducing uncertainty for the future”.
The university is currently also in hot water as it owes £1.1m to an engineering professor who took them to a 13-year tribunal battle over an unfair dismissal.