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Cardiff University has further scaled back its planned job cuts and handed a reprieve to some degree courses in a further softening in its approach to restructuring.

After initially planning to make 400 staff redundant, this figure was revised down to 286 in April?and has now become a target of 138, which the university said will be carried out over a number of years.

A further 133 staff members have left via a voluntary severance scheme and unions are continuing to highlight the strain being placed on the workloads of those remaining.

Cardiff, whose original plans represented some of the starkest cuts in the sector, has previously rowed back on plans to close its nursing school and has promised not to make compulsory redundancies in 2025.

In a letter to staff sent on 15 May, vice-chancellor Wendy Larner acknowledges ¡°the last three months has been a really difficult time¡±, and says ¡°I do not underestimate the distress and worry that continues to be experienced by our community as we address our academic and financial sustainability¡±.

She outlines that the School of Healthcare Sciences, the School of Medicine, the School of Biosciences, and the School of English, Communications and Philosophy are now out of scope of the consultation, meaning that the number of staff at risk stands at 600, down from an initial total of 1,807, and April¡¯s revised total of 1,307.

The university has accepted alternative proposals put forward by staff which will see schools ¡°teaching higher numbers of students than in the original proposals¡±, and the university has decided to maintain its medicinal chemistry degree, which had been due to close.

¡°I know that this offers little comfort for those of you whose roles remain at risk. We have, of course, now committed to no compulsory redundancies in 2025, and reconfirmed that compulsory redundancies will only ever be an action of last resort in future years,¡± Larner writes. ?

The need to staff the provider¡¯s?controversial Kazakhstan campus?has additionally meant that it has been able to cut redundancy targets for relevant in-scope schools by 34 full-time-equivalent staff. It has additionally revised redundancy targets for some schools, most notably in its proposed School of Global Humanities, where savings targets will be cut by 15 FTE.

¡°We have received several alternative proposals for the proposed new School of Global Humanities and its corresponding disciplines, and we are currently modelling those proposals.?

¡°Some of those proposals include options for retaining elements of disciplines we had initially proposed to close. A workshop has been held to bring together academic staff from across the constituent schools?and trade union representatives,?to inform the development of that school, including its proposed course portfolio and structure,¡± Larner says.

Any school mergers will not be in place until 2026-27, with preparatory work taking place during the 2025-26 academic year, and ¡°the alternative proposals will also inform and indeed perhaps shift the structure of those proposals¡±, she adds.?

Cardiff¡¯s University and College Union branch, which has?called off strike action and a marking and assessment boycott?in response to the changes, ¡°cautiously welcomed¡± parts of the latest announcement but said there remained ¡°numerous areas of grave concern for our members about management¡¯s continued programme of cuts¡±.

¡°It is good to see that the university has further reduced the number of staff in scope for redundancy and removed some schools and departments¡¯ ¡®at risk¡¯ status,¡± a statement said.

¡°We also welcome the reduction in numbers of staff the university is seeking to reduce overall, as well as the indications it has given that some disciplines initially earmarked for closure in its initial highly damaging proposals now have the potential to be saved.

¡°Our members will be relieved to hear that management now agrees with UCU¡¯s long-standing argument that we should aim to restructure the university, and make savings, over a longer period.¡±

UCU stressed that all staff should now be taken out of the scope of redundancy and it will continue to ¡°campaign on the pressing issue of workload-related mental and physical ill-health given the numbers of staff who have been forced out voluntarily in the wake of its cuts announcements and the inevitable workload increases for those who remain¡±.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com