Edinburgh uni to cut staff to plug £140m black hole
Principal Sir Peter Mathieson said "radical university-wide actions" are needed to make the savings
Edinburgh University plans to reduce staff numbers to plug a 140 million financial black hole.
University principal Professor Sir Peter Mathieson said the gap equates to about 10% of the university's annual turnover.
He said "radical university-wide actions" are needed to make the savings, which will lead to "a smaller staff base and lower operating costs".
The university declined to confirm the number of staff reductions and whether these will include compulsory redundancies.
Prof Sir Peter said in a statement: "I have been open about the severe financial difficulty our university, and the wider sector, is facing. Today, my senior team and I have announced how we will address these issues.
"We are currently forecasting to be in operational deficit in forthcoming years, and this must be reversed for us to sustain our position as a world-leading institution.
"The size of the financial gap that we need to close over the next 18 months is about 10% of our annual turnover - a similar percentage to that of many other universities.
"This has to be a recurring and sustainable reduction in our costs. For us, this is of the order of £140 million. To put this into context, it costs around £120 million a month to run the University of Edinburgh.
"To make these recurrent savings, we need radical university-wide actions, which will lead to a smaller staff base and lower operating costs.
"We are also reviewing all capital expenditure - including previously approved projects - with a renewed lens of affordability."
He said the plans aim to restore the university to a "secure sustainable position" by financial year 2026/27.
Prof Sir Peter said the factors behind the financial problems include "years of income for teaching not rising in line with costs, steeply rising utilities prices, inflation, recent unexpected announcements on national insurance contributions, and rise in employment costs: these have all contributed to the fragility of the sector's finances", as well as the UK being a less attractive destination for international students.
He said the announcement is "understandably difficult" but pledged the university will "emerge as a stronger institution".