University 'sacking staff over selling buildings'

A university has been accused of refusing to sell underused buildings "in the hope of getting more money for them later" whilst making staff redundant.

A meeting was held between the leaders of Coventry University Group and union representatives after the group's latest financial report raised concerns.

Anne O'Sullivan, from the University and College Union (UCU), called the meeting a "non-event" where the university repeated the information that the unions had already seen in the report.

A spokesperson said the university group had been "transparent" with staff about its financial position.

The annual report, which was published on Thursday, highlighted that the group made a £59.3m loss between 2023-24 and independent auditors' said "uncertainty exists" over "its ability to continue".

The group also announced that it would have to cut more than 60 full-time jobs to help lower costs.

Representatives from the UCU, Unite and Unison met with the group on Monday to discuss the planned job cuts and question the university's future.

Ms O'Sullivan said: "They said they're confident they're going to get out of the mess they're in and basically told us nothing to see here, move along.

"We are not convinced by that, we think there are deeper problems that they are glossing over."

The group previously announced in December 2023 that it needed to deliver nearly £100m in cuts over a two-year period.

A spokesperson for the university said: "We have reiterated in the meeting the university's financial position and our change programmes.

"The group is now in the second year of an accelerated change programme to reform and reshape the organisation for future growth."

The publication of the report also coincided with an announcement that 250 full-time equivalent roles were at risk, while more than 185 jobs would be created elsewhere in the group.

Ms O'Sullivan said one of the problems was that the group "always defaulted" to job cuts in order to make savings, rather than looking at "non-pay cost savings".

"They own a lot of property, including a lot of student accomodation, that is now empty because they can't fill it as international students have stopped coming."

She said there were "other alternatives" that the group could choose rather than cutting jobs.

"We did ask the university if they would consider selling the buildings," Ms O'Sullivan added.

"They said that they had, but they didn't want to do that at this point as the market isn't at the place where they could maximise their profit.

"They're holding onto buildings in the hope of getting more money for them later, meanwhile they're making people redundant."

The university spokesperson added that the group had implemented separate "resizing changes" to match the "forced decline" in student numbers and said it was "on target" to deliver the required savings.

"The group is progressing as planned towards 2025-26 when we will be able to add to our cash reserves, which are already more than double what the regulator expects", the spokesperson said.

Ms O'Sullivan said even if staff did secure one of the more than 185 roles that the group planned to create, they would still be disadvantaged.

"They'll be teaching longer hours, they will have their sick pay cut, their annual leave entitlement will be cut and they'll be taken out of teachers' pension scheme," she added.

The spokesperson added that the group had been "transparent" with staff about its financial position and said they had all been offered the opportunity to ask the vice-chancellor any questions that they had.

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