From a Northumbria university student.
FRFI students joined picket lines at Northumbria University, where the University and College Union has called 20 days of strike action since February. The university is forcing staff to switch from their current, government-backed pension scheme (the Teachers’ Pension Scheme) to the privately offered Universities Superannuation Scheme, resulting in reductions in future pensions of up to £12,000 per year. TPS is a defined final benefit scheme explicitly guaranteed by the UK government, meaning it is not reliant on speculative investments. If staff refuse to switch, the university will freeze their pay.
Meanwhile Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education and ‘proud’ Labour MP for nearby Houghton and Sunderland South, has declared she will block any increase in state funding for education. Sunderland university, which has a campus in Phillipson’s constituency has been forced to close its world recognised National Glass centre alongside a staff crèche as a result of the funding crisis. Labour and the NUS are working hand in glove
Faced with this predicament, scores of Northumbria University staff have already accepted voluntary severance instead, with 13 gone in its renowned healthcare and nursing science department alone. On top of this the university has announced plans to cut £25m by the end of 2026. Compulsory redundancies and course closures will follow. Yet Northumbria is spending £25m on the new North East Space Skills and Technology Centre in partnership with the UK Space Agency and US defence company Lockheed Martin, prompting student protests due to Lockheed’s complicity in genocide in Gaza.
Another building project – the Centre for Health and Social Equity – has stalled at the point of design, despite private contractor Ryder Architecture pocketing £5.6m for design fees. The pattern is a clear: lucrative private partnerships for property portfolio investors whist cutting back on staff, forcing those remaining in work to cover more classes and courses whilst the university pays less into their pensions.
Similar cuts, redundancies, pay freezes and pension raids are underway at 11 other universities across the country; higher education is under attack[1]. For example, in May London Metropolitan University pressed voluntary redundancy on or gave notice to 180 academic staff following previous reductions in administration. Kent University is merging with Greenwich in a new cost cutting euphemistically dubbed ‘super-university’, the London and South East University Group (LASEUG) by 1 August. South Bank University is also driving staff out of the TPS pension scheme and has made extensive proposed cuts and downgrades to senior academic and nursing posts. Goldsmiths, University of London is making more staff cuts following waves of redundancies and voluntary severance schemes in 2024 and 2025. Sheffield Hallam aims to cut £27m with 130 jobs on the line, whilst Edinburgh university has announced £140m in cuts with 1,800 staff facing proposed job losses. In Nottingham University over 700 jobs have been lost with 40 Degree programmes terminated while 2,697 staff have now been informed that they are also at risk of redundancy.
As the accumulation crisis in British capital continues, staff with previously secure, well-paid jobs are now in the firing line. Direct government funding has fallen by 60% since 2010, when public funding of university education was slashed. This resulted in the tripling of the tuition fees and making students’ (now ‘clients’ ’) loans the primary means for sustaining universities, a market model introduced by a privatisation ideology. In the face of escalating debt and living costs, fewer students are enrolling. Universities outside of London have seen a 10% drop in student numbers since 2015, while the number of international students has decreased by 6% since 2024, in reaction to increased border controls and extortionate fees. One in three universities forecast financial deficits, nearly half have closed courses and a fifth have closed entire departments, whilst a scramble to update university estate has seen bonds recklessly issued by some Universities, with ballooned debt to banks and private investors.
In the face of such liquidation of higher education, the NUS is nowhere to be seen. The Northumbria students’ union has refused to support the strike and the NUS has failed to organise a single protest nationwide. If we want to save higher education – we have to fight for it! (for more information see @northumbriagainstcuts – on Instagram)
[1] A full list of the cuts made at 110 Universities can be found at https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/
