Kingston University to make £20m of cuts

Kingston University is going to make £20m of cuts in the next two years.

The directive comes from senior leadership at the university, in response to financial challenges the University faces.

However, where the cuts will come is currently unclear, leaving both staff and students wondering where repercussions of the reduced spending will be most keenly felt. Former illustration animation student Oliver Oakley said: “The university already has pretty low student-lecturer contact hours, I worry that further cuts would mean current and future students have their (total) in-person lectures fall to one or two days per week.”

The University and College Union (UCU) said that at least one Kingston University department is under threat of dissolution, however the branch representative chose not to name the department. “The first thing we’d like to see is more transparency from the University about how they’ve identified this £20m figure, and we would like to be consulted over it… and fundamentally we would just like to see a guarantee of job security”, they added.

They also said that the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences will be hit the hardest, having been asked to find £8m in savings but it was not clear why.

Anonymous canvassing by Kingston’s UCU branch suggested that the number of additional hourly paid lecturers (lecturers on more precarious, impermanent contracts) may have decreased, meaning that permanent staff are currently being expected to produce the same amount of provision for students, with fewer teaching staff, and no additional time.

One UCU representative said: “Staff often try to shield students from the adverse effects (of spending cuts). We often feel like we don’t have the time to give the support we want to give. The problem is that the funding model is completely broken, and the relatively small tuition fee rise – small for universities, not students, that (Keir) Starmer is planning to put in, won’t address the problem.”

The UCU representative added: “If ground level members of staff are being expected to shoulder the burden of spending cuts, then at the very least we would like some indication that senior members of staff might also be willing to personally shoulder some of the burden of cuts, in order to keep the university functioning.”

Traditionally, one main area where a university can save money is in staffing costs. Members of Kingston’s staff union (UCU – Kingston Branch) were assured at a recent negotiatios meeting that no cuts to staffing would be made. However, since that meeting, members of the branch committee have received messages from colleagues stating that they have been offered voluntary severance.

It is unclear whether this is linked to the cost cutting drive. However, UCU London region higher education support officer, Debbie Driscoll, said that if individual members of staff were offered severance without any previous consultation with union members then that would “depart from the recognition agreement that the UCU has with universities”.

A Kingston University spokesperson said: “Although the University has entered 2024-25 in a far stronger position than many other institutions due to our careful financial management, we can’t be complacent in what remains a challenging national economic context… We are currently seeking feedback and suggestions from colleagues across the University about ways we can refine activity or do things differently.

This year’s Clearing period proved more competitive than ever across the UK and all universities have been feeling the impact of declining overseas student numbers. Postgraduate recruitment also remains challenging at a national level. Although the Government has recently announced a rise in tuition fees, these have previously remained frozen at £9,250 since 2017. Students’ expectations in terms of the quality of the services and support they rightly want us to provide have increased significantly meanwhile.

“To keep achieving our ambitions for the future and ensure the University can continue to deliver the highest quality of teaching and learning for our students, we must maintain our financial sustainability. We have therefore asked all Faculties and Directorates to explore ways we can streamline how we operate to ensure we are as efficient and effective as possible. As part of this process, we will be making sure we are investing in areas of growth and readjusting spend in areas where this is no longer the case.

“We are currently seeking feedback and suggestions from colleagues across the University about ways we can refine activity or do things differently. With the ongoing support and commitment of our university community and the clear sense of direction and purpose provided by our Town House Strategy, we are confident we remain well positioned to respond to the wider challenges of the current economic context.”