\u2018Blindsided\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nTV executive Pat Younge, who chairs the University Council, said: \u201cWe thought we were about to sign a joint agreement, a draft plan, next week. We were a bit blindsided by the decision by UCU to go to the media this week, but that joint working is underway. I am personally very committed to that. I have said that, both in public and behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m hoping we can get that back on track. The Vice Chancellor\u2019s being very polite, to be honest. UCU did bring us their survey. We did meet with them. There\u2019s a lot of talk about social partnership. We believe we\u2019re working in partnership with them to create a new joint strategy. In fact, it\u2019s meant to be signed off next week. We then discover on Monday that they\u2019ve issued a press release that they\u2019re taking us to the HSE [Health and Safety Executive}. We were actually informed of that after they\u2019d issued it to the press.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I would say is that social partnership working works both ways. And, you know, I\u2019m deeply disappointed in some of the behaviours. As Chair of Council, we have an obligation and a responsibility for everybody in the university, and we need to sort of change that paradigm because it isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plaid Cymru education spokesperson Cefin Campbell put it to Prof Larner that the university had backtracked on its original proposals. He asked her whether it had been wise to approach the changes in the way it had, given the damage to staff morale, goodwill and trust, as well as the reputational damage to the university, not only in Cardiff and Wales, but internationally.<\/p>\n
\u2018Genuine engagement\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nShe responded: \u201cWe were very clear in January that it was a consultation and that there would be a genuine engagement around the proposals we put on the table in January. I do understand that despite our best efforts to help both universities and our stakeholders understand how challenging the moment was for us, the scale of that announcement came as a shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve recently had a joint ACAS facilitated seminar that brought together the senior leaders from the university and the senior leaders from the union to discuss approaches to restructuring and redundancies more generally. And I for one found that a very helpful session. It confirmed that, difficult as it has been, we have taken the right approach. We did need to do what we have done in order to identify those areas of the university that were in scope [for redundancy or closure]. I\u2019m delighted by the quality of the alternative proposals that came up from our community. That is why we have been able to change, quite significantly, those initial plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Younge told the committee: \u201cWe don\u2019t have a God given right to exist. We do have to live within our means, and this has been a difficult exercise. Before Wendy joined us, we ran two rounds of voluntary severance. We didn\u2019t get the take up that we needed to avoid going into the sort of program that we\u2019ve gone into.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve read the evidence of all the other Welsh universities, and I know all the other Chairs in Wales. I think you know that this is a deep structural problem. This was just Cardiff University going through this \u2026 There\u2019s no easy way to tell 100, 200, 400 people that they\u2019re at risk of redundancy. It is a difficult exercise. But sometimes, especially if you love something, and I love Cardiff University, you have to give people difficult messages, and this was one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate<\/strong><\/p>\nAsked whether it was the case that the university\u2019s Senate \u2013 composed of academics \u2013 had rejected the latest cuts proposals at a meeting on Wednesday June 11, Prof Larner said: \u201cSo the Senate has an advisory role in this process. So we heard, very eloquently at the Senate, particularly from heads of school with disciplines that are those disciplines that the plans propose we disinvest from. And quite understandably, Senate colleagues did not recommend those changes to Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey offered all sorts of good advice. We will present that advice to Council along with the papers that go to Council around this item.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether the university would be on a firm financial footing if the revised proposals are implemented, Prof Larner said: \u201cWell, the financial headwinds continue to blow strongly. The recent immigration White Paper, for example, just fills me with foreboding. The challenges around international students coming to the UK are very real. Many universities, us included, have seen a very significant drop off in applications and indeed enrolments. In part this is about shifts in the policy settings in Westminster, but in part it\u2019s also about wider geopolitical shifts where international students who might once have come to the UK now have more opportunities available to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese students for example who\u2019ve been very important historically not just for the UK but for the Anglo-speaking countries, Australasia and North America included. China now does very effective postgraduate training programmes in China delivered in English, and there is now transnational education from China in south east Asia, again being delivered in English. Students are staying in that part of the world rather than coming to join us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Bruising\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter the meeting, a spokesperson for Cardiff UCU said: \u201cThis morning the Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University Professor Wendy Larner, alongside Chair of University Council Pat Younge was called to answer questions about Cardiff University management\u2019s ongoing controversial cuts proposals from cross-party members of the Senedd\u2019s Children, Young People and Education Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hearing took place less than 24 hours after a bruising rejection of management\u2019s Academic Futures cuts proposals by Cardiff University Senate (the body responsible for upholding academic standards at the institution). When asked to vote, not one member of the Senate, which included close allies of the Vice Chancellor, voted in favour of recommending the plans proposed to University Council (which is the supreme governing body of the University, and meets to scrutinise the plans on Tuesday March 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the four months since cuts were announced we have lost 160 expert academics across the university, 400 academics still remain in scope for redundancy, and the plans that they have produced will further devastate the university and fundamentally risk its future sustainability.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder huge pressure from staff, students, and the wider community the university has been forced to U-turn on some of its most damaging proposals. But we remain deeply concerned that the ongoing proposed cuts and restructure risks Cardiff University\u2019s future reputation and financial security, as well as its ability to contribute world-leading teaching, research, and professional training to Wales.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe Vice Chancellor\u2019s answers to Senedd members today did nothing to alleviate those fears, and in some ways made them worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Support our Nation today<\/p>\n
For the price of a cup of coffee<\/strong> a month you can help us create an
\n independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by
\n the people of Wales.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cardiff University Vice Chancellor Wendy Larner Martin Shipton Cardiff University\u2019s embattled Vice Chancellor Wendy Larner has told a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-179360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114672497176749744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Cardiff-University-Vice-Chancellor-Wendy-Larner.jpg\")
Cardiff University Vice Chancellor Wendy Larner<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CAW049319-STATIC-IMAGES-NATION-CYMRU.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4776_NLW_No-Welsh-Art-Digital-Advert_Mar-2025_Land_V2_EN-1.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n