Hundreds face jobs axe threat at Warwick University

Around 800 staff have been warned about possible job losses at Warwick University.



Lecturers, researchers and support staff at the university’s School of Life Sciences and the Warwick Medical School were called to meetings to hear about plans for cuts which could involve job losses.

But bosses at the campus, in Gibbet Hill, Coventry, say if they have to cut staff they aim to find volunteers to leave their jobs in return for redundancy payments.

It’s not yet clear how many posts are at risk, although 800 staff have been warned about possible cuts – due to the departments under-performing financially.

Warwick University spokesman Peter Dunn said: “Staff at both Warwick Medical School and the University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences have been made aware that the university is concerned that they are operating significantly below their financial targets.

“The university now needs to work with both of those departments to help them rebalance their plans to ensure that they have a strong and sustainable future.

“The university is setting up review groups, to work with each school to determine where and how savings can be made and to explore potential improvement in income.

“While that work has just begun the early indications are that in order to secure the long-term viability of both schools it is likely that there will have to be some reduction in staffing levels.

“However, should that be the case, the university will seek to achieve that reduction through voluntary means.”

Undergraduates at Warwick University pay £9,000 a year for their courses, while postgraduate fees depend on the course.

The school of life sciences includes the Wellesbourne-based Warwick Crop Centre, set up in 1949 as the National Vegetable Research Station.

Warwick University has more than 100 staff members earning £100,000 or more



Warwick University is the only one in the Midlands to employ more than 100 staff on salaries of £100,000 or more.

Bosses at lecturers’ union the University and College Union asked universities around the country about their highest paid staff.

Using the Freedom of Information Act they also asked for details of expenses claimed by vice chancellors – the most senior salaried people in the universities – for flights and hotel rooms.

The replies from Warwick University in Gibbet Hill, Coventry, showed there are 128 staff earning salaries of £100,000 or more.

Warwick University bosses gave also details of 12 international flights taken by vice chancellor Sir Nigel Thrift.

But unlike some other universities they didn’t release minutes of the remuneration committee.

That’s the committee which makes decisions about vice chancellor pay and expenses.

The flights include trips to New York, Australia and California where Warwick University has partnerships with local universities and educational organisations.

UCU regional official, Anne O’Sullivan, said: “This report lifts the lid on the inconsistent and arbitrary nature of senior pay and perks in our universities and shines a light on the murky world of shadowy remuneration committees who sign off these deals.

“What has been most striking is the huge variation in higher education institutions’ responses to our request, with too many refusing to provide any information on expenses, and many showing a strong determination to keep the details of decision-making on senior pay a closely-guarded secret.

“We need a far more transparent system that allows for proper scrutiny of spending at the top and the rationale behind pay rises.”

Warwick University spokesman Peter Dunn said: “The only request we didn’t reply on was the minutes of the remuneration committee.

“Here at the University of Warwick we have a medical school and we make clinical appointments.

“We make appointments of people who are clinicians as well as academics so we are likely to have more on those higher rates.”