![\"Edinburgh](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2.81531673.jpg\")
Hundreds of staff gathered for a rally in George Square (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\nMembers of the University and College Union (UCU) set up picket lines at a number of sites around the university on Monday morning, before attending a rally in George Square in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Many of those participating in the walkout held placards with slogans including \u201cNo to compulsory redundancies\u201d, \u201cKnowledge production not workforce reduction\u201d, and \u201cStaff-student solidarity\u201d.<\/p>\n
The union said its members had \u201cno choice\u201d but to walk out following the university\u2019s refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies as part of its savings bid, with as many as 1,800 jobs understood to be at risk.<\/p>\n
It also disputed the need for the cuts \u2013 which it said are the \u201clargest ever seen\u201d in the history of Scottish higher education \u2013 due to the university not being in deficit.<\/p>\n
The walkout is expected to continue throughout the university\u2019s \u201cwelcome week\u201d when new students arrive on campus for the first time.<\/p>\n
The union also said it is currently \u201ctaking steps\u201d to extend its mandate for industrial action, which expires in November.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a picket line in George Square, UCU branch president Sophia Woodman said job losses accounted for a \u201cdisproportionate\u201d percentage of the planned cuts, and that losing \u201cas many as 10% of staff\u201d would impact on teaching and research at the university.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of staff gathered for a rally in George Square (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is deeply destructive and unfair, so we\u2019re out on strike to insist on negotiations over these cuts, their pace, their scale,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sounding the alarm for the future and the present of research and teaching at this institution, because they\u2019re really being harmed by cuts that are already underway.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on: \u201cWe are losing a week\u2019s pay because we care about our students, we care about our university. We are the university.<\/p>\n
\u201cManagement is speaking all the time as if they are the university, but we are the university and we\u2019re standing here because we don\u2019t have any other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe fact that we\u2019re standing out here, and that this may impact the experience of new students, is on management squarely. They are responsible for that situation.<\/p>\n
She also said there were ways the university could reduce expenditure \u201cwithout this level of impact on staff\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, they\u2019ve not been a willing to negotiate with us on one penny of their plans, not one penny,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat needs to change. Universities are supposed to be self-governing institutions. That\u2019s part of academic freedom. They need to take us seriously and take the concerns of staff seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caitlin Jones, a researcher at the university\u2019s informatics department, said cuts to backroom staff such as HR and building services would result in a \u201cdecrease in student services\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re asking fewer people to do more, then those students won\u2019t have the quality of education that they expect from a world class university,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThese cuts will lead to a loss of jobs \u2013 jobs that university needs, that the university staff and students need, to provide good research and a good education, which is the purpose of this university.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Edinburgh](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2.81529596.jpg\")
UCU members at Edinburgh University set up picket lines at a number of university sites (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people attended a rally at George Square at noon where they were addressed by a range of speakers, including union representatives and members of other Scottish universities.<\/p>\n
One of the speakers, UCU Scotland official Mary Senior, said the cuts were a \u201cpolitical choice\u201d as there was no deficit at the university.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the university, staff and students at the university, they can\u2019t operate without us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd how they think they can make plans to cut so many staff and continue doing our work is just madness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The action comes after a day of strike action on June 20, when UCU members walked out during a university open day.<\/p>\n
Action short of a strike, such as working to contract, not volunteering for duties and not covering absent colleagues, has also been ongoing since June 20.<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s principal and vice chancellor, Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, said: \u201cThe higher education sector across the UK is facing serious and urgent financial challenges, placing its long-term stability under threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been transparent about the impact of these pressures on Edinburgh and the steps we are taking to proactively maintain our position as a world-leading university.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe respect colleagues\u2019 right to take part in industrial action and will do everything we can to minimise any disruption to our students and planned welcome week activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to engage regularly with the joint trade unions, staff and our students, and remain firmly committed to ongoing dialogue as we take the necessary steps to safeguard the future of our university.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the University and College Union (UCU) set up picket lines at a number of sites around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-409662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115172747998727587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409662","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=409662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}