University of Edinburgh staff have slammed ‘vanity obsessed’ bosses as they protested against proposed budget cuts.
Staff gathered at Bristo Square on Friday as the first of six days of strikes began, coinciding with the university’s open day. This comes after the principal, Sir Peter Mathieson, refused to rule out making compulsory redundancies.
He told Holyrood’s education committee earlier this month that the cuts were ‘in the best interest of the university’. At the same time, reports circulated that Mathieson ‘didn’t know his exact salary’ – though it’s been previously been suggested that he earns around £418,000 a year.
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On June 20, Edinburgh Live spoke to exasperated staff at Bristo Square who argued the university ‘had no need to be making cuts’. They suggested that the proposed cuts damaged the reputation of the university, impact the ‘world class research’ that’s being carried out, and are ‘deeply concerning’ to staff.
Protestors also highlighted the ongoing development of new buildings at the university. This comes as three major projects are planned for the King’s Buildings campus, with a total value of around £200m – the most significant investment in the estate for 50 years.
Peter Mathieson said the university has been ‘transparent’ about the ‘urgent need for savings’. He added: “Failure to take preventative steps would leave us in an unsustainable situation.”
Georgia Dodsworth, who works in the research office, says her department has ‘no idea how many jobs could be lost’. Speaking at the rally, she told Edinburgh Live: “A lot of people have left to go to other jobs already and they’re not being replaced.
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“Workload is going on to staff who are already there, so that’s affecting wellbeing, but also we’re obviously concerned about the impact on students and the student experience and teaching. This will also affect research that is done at the university and Edinburgh is world class.
“The type of research that genuinely is making people’s lives better and is contributing to the sum of human knowledge. These potential cuts, and all the conversation that’s going on around the university by the senior management, is affecting how funders view us as well and academics.
“Some academics are not applying for funding through Edinburgh because they think it’s going to be further down the line or they think that is going to disappear.”
A protestor held a sign that read ‘will your course be here next year?’ -Credit:Edinburgh Live
Katie Byrne, a student advisor at the university, believes it’s ‘crucial’ that funding for support services remains in place. She told Edinburgh Live: “A lot of programs could be cut, and a lot of support services could potentially be cut for students, which are even more valuable that informal learning.
“We’re learning things about Peter Mathieson spending on a PR campaign to essentially mitigate a lot of the damage he’s already done. When you think about it, these cuts don’t need to happen.
Patrick Honeybone, a linguistics professor at the university, added: “The university is pretending the place is in a deficit, it isn’t. They’re saying they need to make vast cuts, well Unison argues they really don’t.
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“They’re spending who knows how much money on these vanity projects with the university buildings. Nobody’s saying that there can’t be some changes somewhere, but they won’t do is say that they don’t need to. Fundamentally that’s the bottom line for us.
“If the university had committed to no compulsory redundancies, then we wouldn’t have to be on strike today. Why won’t they just tell us that they’re not going to sack us?”
Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, said: “We have been transparent about the savings urgently needed to secure our financial footing, with forecasts showing that we will be in deficit from the next financial year should we not act now.
“Failure to take preventative steps would leave us in an unsustainable situation, requiring deeper savings. We respect colleagues’ right to take part in industrial action, and we are doing our utmost to keep any disruption during Open Day to a minimum. We will also continue to work with our joint trade unions as plans develop to deliver these savings.”