The University of Sussex is planning to cut at least 200 jobs – in the wake of more than 500 staff leaving voluntarily in the last 12 months.
The university today launched a 45-day consultation on its plans to slash the equivalent of 200 full time posts, across both academic departments and areas such as admissions, student support and IT.
The Unison union says the cuts will add to the strain and uncertainty facing colleagues left behind, and lower morale.
Although staff are initially being offered voluntary redundancy, the union fears compulsory redundancies could follow if insufficient numbers come forward.
The cuts are being driven by the university’s plans to reduce annual spending by £35 million, following a reported loss of 4,000 students.
Separately to the university cuts, 17 jobs are also at risk at the university’s students’ union and a dozen at the Institute of Development Studies, a leading research organisation and global charity.
Unison’s south east regional secretary Jo Galloway said: “Staff have already endured wave after wave of cuts and uncertainty. It’s unacceptable to ask remaining employees to carry even heavier workloads after hundreds of colleagues have gone.
“Universities cannot cut their way to stability while expecting staff and students to pay the price. These proposals will cause huge anxiety across the higher education sector and the South East, and the union will do all it can to protect staff and prevent job losses.
“Students will also feel the impact. Cutting jobs in student support and services risks damaging the quality of students’ education and their overall university experience.”
The university’s vice chancellor, Professor Sasha Roseneil, said: ”Like many universities across the country, the University of Sussex is facing the continued need to make very difficult decisions to address the impact of the financial sustainability crisis affecting UK higher education.
“This crisis results from the long-term underfunding of teaching and research, ongoing inflationary pressures, and a steep fall in international students driven by government policy changes.
“Since 2023/24 Sussex has significantly reduced expenditure through non-pay savings, vacancy management and cutting our capital programme, and 528 staff have left the University under two voluntary leavers schemes.
“Despite this, we still need to make further savings. That means we must now strategically reorganise our operations and academic delivery to ensure our long‑term financial sustainability.
“As the proposal to reorganise our operations and academic delivery may result in the loss of approximately 200 (full time equivalent) roles through redundancy, we are now consulting our recognised trade unions and our staff about this regrettable situation.
“Sussex has a deeply committed community of staff and students, and I am very sorry that we have not been able to avoid this announcement of job losses.
“The process on which we are about to embark will not, however, distract us from our focus on giving our students a rich, inspirational and high-quality education, and on supporting our staff as they make distinctive, inventive, and positive contributions through their world-leading research.”