A university that will open in three years with a budget of 45 million
Norwich-based University of East Anglia (UEA) has warned of forced layoffs as it tries to get its budget under control.
To save money, the university offered a voluntary severance scheme.
Those who applied have now been informed of the result and are expected to leave in August.
- How did a university come to be faced with a £30m deficit?
The university said 136 of the 224 employees who applied for voluntary severance pay were approved and received offers.
The scheme is one of several cost-cutting measures at the university, which expects a budget deficit of up to £30m in 2023-24 and £45m in three years.
Prof Christine Bovis-Cnossen, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the UEA, said: “This will save us over £6million – a significant contribution to our overall cost savings target.
“In addition to the non-filling of some vacancies, the annual salary has been postponed by 11 months and other voluntary cost-cutting measures.
“Of course, all of these measures are unfortunate, but they will help us minimize the risk of redundancies – which I must stress again will be a last resort.”
Further savings measures are being finalized and presented to the University Council in May. If approved, talks would begin with unions, the UEA said.
dr University and College Union Industry Chair Michael Kyriacou said: “While these savings reduce the scope and magnitude of layoffs, it’s important to remember that every pound saved through voluntary redundancy already represents one employee leaving UEA .
“[We] have made it clear to the university management and the university council that we consider redundancies for operational reasons to be possible and expect savings to be made so that the savings are not at the expense of the livelihoods of the employees.”
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