Schrödinger’s campus?
Amended 13th June 2024
The key rationale offered for the increased cuts is an apparent decline in the number of international students. Given the profile and investment in the London campus, you might be asking why all bar one academic posts due to be cut are located at the York campus.
In answer to the question “what is the budgeted cost of the decline of international students?”, we were told:
For the Jan/Feb intake, the sector was 44% down in international student recruitment and YSJ was 12% down. Latest YSJ application data seen by EB (12th May) shows 25% year on year decline in London applications and a 62% decline in York applications.
However, in response to a separate question (put to them at the same time), which asked why the part-time hourly paid budget for London was preserved despite the increased savings target, we were told:
Student numbers in London continue to grow. London operates a different model, with much higher SSRs plus a range of industry expert VLs whose contributions are paid for from the casual academic budget. Some of these specialists also write new course material.
While applications and student numbers are separate entities, and of course it is possible that one could rise without a subsequent increase in the other, the second quote certainly seems at odds with the rationale to cut an additional £3.1 million from next year’s budget.
Confused? So are we…
The answers to our two questions, then, appear at odds with each other. If student numbers at YSJ London – which accounts for approximately two thirds of York St John’s international student community – “continue to grow”, then the prospect of needing to cut an additional £3.1m seems less like a necessity.
Data subsequently obtained from Exec Board demonstrate that far from an estimated 20% reduction, international student numbers for 2024/25 are expected to increase. International student numbers across both campuses will be higher in 2024/25 (no, you read that correctly, it does say higher) than they were in 2023/24 – hardly justification for not recruiting 60+ posts across the year and making almost 30 people redundant next month.
This growth – in the number of students studying, rather than applications – comes on top of a large increase in 2023/24. It also reflects what we have been hearing from colleagues in our London campus, which is that numbers are increasing at a much faster rate than staff. It might also explain why the part-time hourly paid lecturers’ budget for the London campus has been ringfenced.
Such changes are largely static from 2024/25, with forecasts up to and including 2026/27 predicting only marginal changes year on year – and again, demonstrating a large increase based on the 2023/4 figures.
So what’s the problem?
In short, there doesn’t seem to be one. If student numbers are increasing, why write this blog, why are the union so concerned? Financially, this is something to be celebrated, isn’t it?
Well, everything would be fine (with usual concerns over sustainability of workloads given the large increase in numbers, particularly at the London campus) except management are using this as a rationale to cut 30 posts, on top of the 60 already withdrawn from the university’s organisational structure over the last 12 months.
Yes, again you read that right: management are asking us to accept that an increase in student numbers is a justifiable rationale for staffing cuts. Naturally we reject this. Given the figures YSJ UCU has received, we repeat our argument to stop the redundancy process immediately.