University of the Highlands and Islands chief insists they are trying to minimise job losses, amid strike dispute
BOSSES at the University of the Highlands and Islands have insisted they closely consulted with staff during discussions into job losses.
Staff in the University and College Union (UCU) walked out of UHI House in Inverness on Tuesday in response to plans for £4 million of budget cuts at the university which could cost dozens of staff their jobs.
The university's executive team says the cuts are necessary and come in response to a number of economic blows in recent years – from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic to the impact of rising inflation and the damage done by Brexit, the latter of which cut off access to EU funding streams the university had previously used.
Concerned staff have since hit out at the planned cuts, claiming that the consultation felt "rushed" and that people who had applied for voluntary redundancy last year had been blocked at that time, only for compulsory redundancies to be on the table now.
Related: Strikes to go ahead amid dispute over staff cuts at University of the Highlands and Islands
Speaking ahead of the strike, Sorcha Kirker, UHI UCU branch officer, said: "The very last thing we want to do is to go on strike, but the scale of these job losses, the lack of consultation and the rushed process has left us no choice."
Tuesday's industrial action was the fist of six days of strike action, with a two-day walkout scheduled for October 25 and 26, followed by a three-day one from October 31 to November 2.
Responding to the union's complaints in an interview with the Inverness Courier on Tuesday, Vicki Nairn, the UHI's Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor, said the university was working as hard as possible to try to avoid mandatory job losses.
"When we launched [this year's] redundancy scheme we were conscious to avoid as many compulsory losses as possible. We started with up to 44 possible job losses but have been able to reduce it to a potential 28 and are still looking where we can for other ideas and suggestions [to cut that number further]."
She added that the "figure may reduce further as we talk with colleagues" about possible redeployment.
Continuing onto the subject of last year's voluntary redundancy programme and the decision to deny some of those who applied at that time, she stressed that the university had responsibilities as an organisation in receipt of public funds and that this prevented it from accepting all requests for redundancy at that time.
"Unfortunately we were unable to let everyone take voluntary redundancy who asked, and we were very clear to the staff that were applying that they wouldn't necessarily be accepted."
She also argued that UHI management had been fair to staff during the latest consultation and denied that the process had been rushed.
"We have undertaken extensive collective consultation with all staff, and not just UCU members," she said. "We also extended the consultation process at the request of our [elective staff] committee and this has run for longer than the legal requirement – approximately 50 per cent longer."
She claimed that the university wanted to avoid as many redundancies as possible, but that economic challenges being faced by people and organisations from all walks of life meant that UHI had to "reposition" itself for the future.
"Like all organisations that are publicly funded we are dealing with a number of different financial drivers," she explained. "Like many we are in post-pandemic recovery; there's Brexit [as well] which relates to reduction in EU finding. Inflation and these other pressures mean we are facing a loss of funding that is available.
"[In response] the UHI launched its new Strategy Plan 2030. What we have done in there is repositioning the UHI to respond to those challenges and creating a platform for growth by taking steps now to create a very much more sustainable organisation."
She added that the university had a strong reputation for its teaching and research and that this would continue – highlighting that it places first in Scotland for post-graduate satisfaction, highly for undergraduates too, and that 72 per cent of its research is rated as "world leading or excellent".
Asked how the strike by UCU members within the UHI's executive office might have knock-on effects for the university's various individual colleges, she would not give any specifics but stressed that "we are doing everything we can to mitigate any impact" on the UHI's students.
