Dear student
I wrote to you at the end of March to tell you about the actions we’re taking to manage the financial challenges which BU is facing.
Like many other universities, BU needs to make savings and we are seeking to do this by reorganising our structure and finding efficiencies. Unfortunately, we also need to consider reducing the number of people who work for us.
Our aim is to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies from the restructure, although we anticipate that we won’t be able to avoid this completely. However, I believe that by restructuring, we can evolve BU into a stronger university, fit for future challenges.
Our commitment to you also remains. While we will suspend recruitment for some courses to new students in September, we will continue to provide high quality teaching on all courses for our current students. Alongside your studies or research, our support teams, such as Additional Learning and Support, and Student Wellbeing, will still be available for you to access.
We have launched a staff consultation about a new structure for BU, which will reduce the number of people who work at the university by around 200 (100 academic staff and 100 non-academic staff). This consultation began on 1 April and seeks staff feedback on proposed new structures over the next couple of months, across three phases. Once the consultation period is over, we will review all the comments received and finalise the new structure. We aim to have this in place by the end of July, ready for the new academic year.
Higher education context
Many universities in the UK are facing financial difficulties and need to make savings to ensure they can continue to operate. This situation is due to a number of factors, including fewer international students coming here to study; increased costs such as pension contributions, running costs for the university and our buildings, and higher National Insurance contributions; and tuition fees which, until recently, have been frozen for many years. Therefore, when we consider the effect of inflation, the real-terms value of the tuition fee has decreased over time, meaning that universities receive less money for each student they teach.
Need some help?
I know that you might have questions about the restructuring and staff consultation. Please do get in touch by contacting AskBU. If you are worried about the situation, the student assistance programme from Health Assured is available for you to access 24/7. You can also get in touch with the Student Wellbeing Team or visit the University Retreat. The Faith & Reflection team offers a quiet space on campus and support for students of any faith or none.
As we head towards the end of the consultation period, I will update you on the next stage of this process.
Kind regards
Professor Alison Honour
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer