Ulster University to cut up to 450 jobs amid funding pressures

Northern Ireland’s biggest university is to make around 450 staff redundant.

Ulster University, which has more than 30,000 students, employs 3,100 staff across its campuses in Belfast, Jordanstown, Coleraine and Londonderry.

On Wednesday, staff were briefed virtually about the proposed job cuts by the vice-chancellor Professor Paul Bartholomew – it is understood the scheme is currently voluntary.

Norman Hagan, chair of the Ulster University branch of the University and College Union (UCU) said job cuts were “deeply alarming and unsustainable” and that compulsory redundancies would be “strongly resisted”.

Mr Hagan said staff were “ready to engage”, but would not “stand idly by and let our university flounder through government or university neglect”.

“Staff already work under sustained pressure, with rising workloads and impossible demands. Imposing redundancies on this scale is deeply alarming and unsustainable,” he said.

“Removing hundreds of staff will fundamentally damage the student experience and weaken academic provision.”

He added: “We are also clear: compulsory redundancies will be strongly resisted.

“This is not just about jobs, it is about protecting the integrity of higher education in Northern Ireland.

“Ulster University plays a critical civic role, and decisions of this magnitude if forced through would have far-reaching detrimental consequences for students, local communities, and the wider regional economy.”

Mr Hagan said: “You cannot cut your way to excellence, removing 450 jobs risks hollowing out the very foundations that make this university viable, credible, and capable of serving its students and the broader society.” 

A university spokesperson said: “Redundancies across the higher education sector have become unavoidable.

“To date, more than 100 institutions across the UK have downsized their staffing complement.

“Ulster University has sought to hold off on making redundancies while continuing to work with the Department for the Economy, through their reviews, on possible changes to the HE (higher education) funding model in Northern Ireland.

“It has recently been made clear to us that a sustainable funding model is not going to be forthcoming, and regretfully we must now act to reduce our costs.”

Meanwhile, Stormont Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald has defended not raising university fees in Northern Ireland as Ulster University faces redundancies.

“We have seen thousands of redundancies across universities in Britain where students are charged twice as much in relation to tuition fees,” she said.

“The common issue in relation to that is that institutions are not being properly funded by the British Government in terms of being able to deliver, and that’s the challenge facing the (Stormont) Executive.

“The issue that we have seen yesterday in terms of the announcement by Ulster University, that’s the real world consequences of the Executive not being properly funded.”

She added: “We don’t believe that putting additional pressure on students is the way to deliver.

“I believe that our public services should be properly funded, and we need to continue to engage with the British Government to ensure that that is the case.

“Hiking tuition fees, that’s not a benign choice when you see the issues in relation to student loans and repayments and the interest rate which we have seen play out in Britain.

“It has real world consequences for people down the line as well.

“Those are the choices that are in front of me as Economy Minister in ensuring we get the balance right in terms of where the burden falls.

“We want to be able to invest in our universities, in that case the Executive needs to be properly funded and I will continue to fight that case, alongside with my Executive colleagues, with the British Government.”

In May last year, Ulster joined regional counterparts Queen’s University Belfast and the Open University in Ireland warning Stormont’s Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald that her decision not to raise tuition fees above the rate of inflation would have a “seriously detrimental impact on higher education”.

The universities warned there was a funding crisis in the sector and said current arrangements were “not sustainable”, but Ms Archibald did not approve a cap increase beyond the annual inflationary adjustment.

A Department for the Economy spokesperson said: “Like all Departments, the Department for the Economy’s finances are extremely challenging.

“The Executive has repeatedly warned that its finances are unsustainable and urged the British Government to ensure the Executive has a proper, sustainable funding model that allows for investment in transformation while delivering quality public services.

“This announcement by Ulster University is another example of the real world consequences of those warnings not being heeded.

“In spite of a very challenging budget, the Economy Minister and Department have worked to prioritise skills delivery through our Further and Higher Education institutions and have engaged in good faith with Ulster University in relation to its budget.

“However, it is worth noting universities in England are facing similar, and in many cases, greater challenges and redundancies, despite charging students twice as much in tuition fees.”

DUP MLA Phillip Brett said the Sinn Fein minister had “failed to bring forward a credible plan to support higher education, leaving institutions like Ulster University facing impossible financial pressures”.

“Today’s announcement shows the scale of this failure. Behind every one of these potential job losses is a family facing uncertainty and a student experience that will inevitably be impacted,” he said.

“This is not just a financial issue; it is a failure of leadership. Promises around expansion, including at Magee, now ring hollow when basic funding cannot be secured to sustain existing provision.”

He said: “The Department for the Economy cannot continue to drift while our universities are pushed to the brink.

“Urgent, decisive intervention is needed now to protect jobs, safeguard students, and secure the future of higher education in Northern Ireland.”

Ulster Unionist deputy leader Diana Armstrong said the job cuts would be “a bitter blow” for staff and students, and “must prompt a much wider conversation about the sustainability of higher education funding in Northern Ireland”.

“Ulster University has been clear that the decision not to uplift tuition fees in line with inflation, combined with the real-terms erosion of the block grant, has left institutions with very little financial flexibility,” she said.

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said Ulster University “recently spent over £350 million on a new campus in Belfast and almost £85,000 on trips to Qatar which included meetings with Qatari government officials”.

“When it comes to flashy projects, the University of Ulster can find money or borrow it from the Executive. Yet when it comes to jobs and wages, the money cannot be found,” he said.