Stop redundancies at the University of Birmingham
Il problema
We write as Birmingham UCU, together with the colleagues at risk. In June 2026, the University of Birmingham placed five members of its Translation and Interpreting staff — its specialists in Arabic, Chinese and Italian, each of them from a migrant or minority ethnic background — at risk of compulsory redundancy. In August, the University sent the proposal to Council for approval by e-mail, without a meeting. Our colleagues now face losing their jobs.
This is a University that in February 2026 was awarded a Silver Race Equality Charter, and whose Vice-Chancellor told the British Academy SHAPE conference on 4 March that the closure of language courses across the country is “a national catastrophe”. Sixteen days later he wrote to all staff that “suggestions that some areas are in the firing line are simply untrue”. Ten weeks after that, five colleagues in Modern Languages were in the firing line.
The consultation that followed, from 4 June to 3 August, was not a consultation. Every alternative the affected staff proposed — teaching out the distance-learning MA in Translation, taking on teaching in other modules, new MA programmes — was rejected without any figures or evidence being shared. The University refused to provide workload modelling for the teach-out, produced a financial case with no figures, and rejected every formal grievance without a hearing. Staff had been told that Council would consider the outcome on 14 October. Instead, the University announced that the proposal would go to Council for decision by written resolution from 17 August, immediately after the consultation closed and before the union’s members could respond collectively. Four weeks on, neither the staff nor the union has been told in writing what was decided.
This is the sixth redundancy round at Birmingham since July 2025 to affect UCU members. In five of the six, most of the staff placed at risk were migrants or from minority ethnic backgrounds. In this round, it is all of them. Colleagues who taught on the same discontinued programmes, but who do not share those characteristics, were not placed at risk. The University has refused to show its equality impact assessment to the affected staff or to their union. We believe this is race discrimination. It comes from a University already subject to an HSE notice of contravention for its management of work-related stress, with corrective measures due by 30 September 2026 — failures independently reported in the profession’s own press.
We call on the University’s Council and Vice-Chancellor to halt these redundancies; to confirm in writing what the executive board and Council decided, and when; to release the equality impact assessment and extend it to nationality and national origins, as section 9 of the Equality Act 2010 requires; to hear the grievances that have been submitted, as the University’s own Ordinance provides; and to meet the affected staff to discuss the alternatives they have already put forward.
What happens to Modern Languages sets the pattern for how anyone at Birmingham could be treated next. Birmingham UCU members, meeting on 3 September, discussed strike action to prevent compulsory redundancies. Members will vote on 17 September on whether to proceed to a ballot for industrial action.
We ask current and former staff, students, alumni and members of the public to support us. Please sign your name and help us win this fight. If you work in a university and are not yet in a union, join one: https://www.ucu.org.uk/join
In hope and solidarity,
Birmingham UCU Committee, with the Translation and Interpreting staff at risk of redundancy
Birmingham, September 2026
Sources
Silver Race Equality Charter award, University announcement, 18 February 2026: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/university-of-birmingham-achieves-silver-race-equality-charter-award
HSE notice of contravention, Birmingham UCU, 13 December 2025:
IOSH Magazine, 14 May 2026:
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Il problema
We write as Birmingham UCU, together with the colleagues at risk. In June 2026, the University of Birmingham placed five members of its Translation and Interpreting staff — its specialists in Arabic, Chinese and Italian, each of them from a migrant or minority ethnic background — at risk of compulsory redundancy. In August, the University sent the proposal to Council for approval by e-mail, without a meeting. Our colleagues now face losing their jobs.
This is a University that in February 2026 was awarded a Silver Race Equality Charter, and whose Vice-Chancellor told the British Academy SHAPE conference on 4 March that the closure of language courses across the country is “a national catastrophe”. Sixteen days later he wrote to all staff that “suggestions that some areas are in the firing line are simply untrue”. Ten weeks after that, five colleagues in Modern Languages were in the firing line.
The consultation that followed, from 4 June to 3 August, was not a consultation. Every alternative the affected staff proposed — teaching out the distance-learning MA in Translation, taking on teaching in other modules, new MA programmes — was rejected without any figures or evidence being shared. The University refused to provide workload modelling for the teach-out, produced a financial case with no figures, and rejected every formal grievance without a hearing. Staff had been told that Council would consider the outcome on 14 October. Instead, the University announced that the proposal would go to Council for decision by written resolution from 17 August, immediately after the consultation closed and before the union’s members could respond collectively. Four weeks on, neither the staff nor the union has been told in writing what was decided.
This is the sixth redundancy round at Birmingham since July 2025 to affect UCU members. In five of the six, most of the staff placed at risk were migrants or from minority ethnic backgrounds. In this round, it is all of them. Colleagues who taught on the same discontinued programmes, but who do not share those characteristics, were not placed at risk. The University has refused to show its equality impact assessment to the affected staff or to their union. We believe this is race discrimination. It comes from a University already subject to an HSE notice of contravention for its management of work-related stress, with corrective measures due by 30 September 2026 — failures independently reported in the profession’s own press.
We call on the University’s Council and Vice-Chancellor to halt these redundancies; to confirm in writing what the executive board and Council decided, and when; to release the equality impact assessment and extend it to nationality and national origins, as section 9 of the Equality Act 2010 requires; to hear the grievances that have been submitted, as the University’s own Ordinance provides; and to meet the affected staff to discuss the alternatives they have already put forward.
What happens to Modern Languages sets the pattern for how anyone at Birmingham could be treated next. Birmingham UCU members, meeting on 3 September, discussed strike action to prevent compulsory redundancies. Members will vote on 17 September on whether to proceed to a ballot for industrial action.
We ask current and former staff, students, alumni and members of the public to support us. Please sign your name and help us win this fight. If you work in a university and are not yet in a union, join one: https://www.ucu.org.uk/join
In hope and solidarity,
Birmingham UCU Committee, with the Translation and Interpreting staff at risk of redundancy
Birmingham, September 2026
Sources
Silver Race Equality Charter award, University announcement, 18 February 2026: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/university-of-birmingham-achieves-silver-race-equality-charter-award
HSE notice of contravention, Birmingham UCU, 13 December 2025:
IOSH Magazine, 14 May 2026:
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Petizione creata in data 7 settembre 2026