{"id":995006,"date":"2026-05-30T20:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/995006\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T20:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:11:23","slug":"over-a-dozen-postgrad-courses-marked-for-closure-at-edinburgh-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/995006\/","title":{"rendered":"Over a dozen postgrad courses marked for closure at Edinburgh University"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of a cost-saving drive at the\u00a0University of Edinburgh<\/a>, college bosses have confirmed they are planning to cut five\u00a0postgraduate courses<\/a>\u00a0in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n

A further eight will be \u201ctaught out\u201d, meaning that the programmes will no longer be offered to new students but will operate until all students currently enrolled have completed the course.<\/p>\n

The move comes as university bosses look to\u00a0cut around \u00a3140 million<\/a>\u00a0from the annual budget. University and College Union (UCU)<\/a>, which represents staff at Edinburgh, has claimed that as many as 1,400 jobs could be lost as a result.<\/p>\n

In the latest phase of cuts, staff members were informed last Friday that the first stage of the \u201cAcademic Size and Shape\u201d programme has concluded.<\/p>\n

\"EdinburghEdinburgh University New College \u00a9 2021, Martin P. McAdam<\/p>\n

This will mean that programmes across the university\u2019s three colleges could be merged, restructured, and cut. The university says this will \u201csupport a strong, sustainable and academically ambitious institution\u201d, while UCU claimed bosses are \u201cgutting the university in the name of profit\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the Herald, staff were told that the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), which employs more than 5,000 staff, will undergo sweeping restructuring, while postgrad cuts were planned at the College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Professor David Kluth, Head of the Edinburgh Medical School at the University of Edinburgh, said: \u201cChanges in medical education are constant, driven by advances in knowledge, new technologies and evolving demands across healthcare and research.<\/p>\n

\u201cEdinburgh Medical School has a strong vision for the future, which has been guided by a thorough and evidence-based review of postgraduate taught programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this will bring opportunities for students, it has also led to our decision to close some postgraduate taught programmes in August 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery student affected will receive tailored information about what this means for them and the support available. Staff also have an opportunity to meet with senior leaders to discuss the implications of these changes and the support available to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He insisted that the changes could lead to \u201cclearer governance\u201d and a more consistent structure: \u201cThe Edinburgh Medical School postgraduate taught portfolio has been redesigned as a whole, rather than isolated changes being made to individual programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means we will move from a large number of standalone MSc programmes to a smaller number of integrated, scalable programme groupings organised around shared curricula, pathway structures and clearer governance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe review has allowed Edinburgh Medical School and the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to consider where programmes can be strengthened, and how academic and professional services support can best be organised to support students and staff effectively over the longer term.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe overall aim is to support a strong, sustainable and academically ambitious postgraduate portfolio for the future. We will build a new offering based on core programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A University spokesperson confirmed that five postgrad programmes will be cut, with a further eight taught out.<\/p>\n

In an Instagram post after staff were informed of the changes, UCU criticised what they see as an opportunistic attempt to prioritise profits over teaching standards.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cAfter the recently concluded \u2018programme review\u2019, management just announced the closure of most postgrad teaching programmes [in the Medical College].<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes highly profitable and successful programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cPeter Mathieson and his mates are gutting the university in the name of profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no deficit. The University of Edinburgh makes a huge surplus every year. It is exponentially richer today than it was 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The university disputed the claim that \u201cmost\u201d postgraduate teaching programmes are closing in the College of Medicine, pointing out that most of the courses identified will be taught out and cut at a later date.<\/p>\n

There have been intermittent strikes at the university since the sweeping cuts were announced last year, and the bitter dispute shows no signs of resolution.<\/p>\n

A Marking and Assessment boycott, an extreme measure where lecturers refuse to mark or assess coursework, has been ongoing since the start of May, in response to a refusal by the university to rule out compulsory redundancies.<\/p>\n

This means that many students could be left without grades at the end of their degrees, and could be handed \u201cunclassified\u201d degrees, with no formal degree certification, at graduation.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of a cost-saving drive at the\u00a0University of Edinburgh, college bosses have confirmed they are planning to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":995007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,276137,33880,4884,712,37866,16,15],"class_list":["post-995006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-edinburgh-cuts","tag-edinburgh-university","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-ucu","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116665351426749977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995006","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=995006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}