Lancaster University is proposing over 450 job cuts, with a Voluntary Redundancy Scheme underway and a Compulsory Redundancy scheme likely to launch in September 2025. That’s roughly 1 in 4 staff — gone.

The University has paid a private consulting company KPMG to produce a report to justify redundancies, which they are refusing to share with the trade unions. University senior managers are hiding behind this report to hide their own failures and mismanagement, while gutting the workforce.

Since 2017, the average pay of the 12-member University Executive Board has risen from £150,000 to £200,000 per person. In 2023/24 alone, the Board earned £2.42 million collectively.

Meanwhile:

1. No senior manager is facing redundancy.
2. No senior manager is taking a pay cut.
3. Staff who’ve endured years of below-inflation pay and burnout are now being forced out.

The University is breaking even this year. But they want to cut jobs on the basis of a vague “£35 million black hole” — a figure based not on current losses but on speculative future income. We believe that the University has borrowed £115 million in loans in recent years without transparent explanation; and continued to reward themselves with fat salaries. A number of senior managers, including the Vice-Chancellor, The Deputy CEO, and the HR Director have already left the University or are leaving soon, while cutting jobs that actually deliver education.

This is not leadership — it’s irresponsible management.

This is a crisis for the whole Lancaster community — families, local businesses, and students alike. Lancaster University is more than numbers in a budget spreadsheet. It directly and indirectly supports 6,000 local jobs and drives economic life in the city and region. Sacking 450 + staff will devastate families, students, and local businesses — from high street shops to taxi drivers and landlords.

We call on the University Executive Team to take full responsibility for their decisions which has led to this crisis, and we demand:

1. An immediate halt to the Compulsory Redundancy process.
2. Full transparency on the University's financial position, including the KPMG report.
3. No job losses without genuine consultation and scrutiny.

Lancaster UCU is preparing to take strike action this autumn. We stand with them.

To every student, staff member, and Lancaster resident:
This is your university.
This is your city.
Don’t let mismanagement destroy it.

Sign the petition. Demand accountability. Defend our community.