I'm very much afraid that the first of the really big explosions is about to drop in Higher Education: at Cardiff University, where management speak of an 'immediate existential crisis'. And this is just the start. Solidarity with and to all colleagues at Cardiff. nation.cymru/news/huge-jo... - ThreadSky

gsoh31.bsky.social • 32 days ago

I'm very much afraid that the first of the really big explosions is about to drop in Higher Education: at Cardiff University, where management speak of an 'immediate existential crisis'. And this is just the start. Solidarity with and to all colleagues at Cardiff. https://nation.cymru/news/huge-job-cuts-announcement-imminent-at-cardiff-university/

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thefastshow.bsky.social•32 days ago

The entire HEI sector is in trouble, for largely the same reasons. Sadly, the previous regime at Cardiff also spent big on vanity building projects in the city centre & the current staff & students are now paying the price. Thoughts are with students and my former [deeply worried] colleagues

stephenstroud.bsky.social•32 days ago

We @lawforchange.uk funded a case that ruled @ox.ac.uk needed to give its academic staff proper teaching contracts. Every time management gets it wrong, the students and teachers suffer. Where does all the money go?

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/21/academics-win-claim-against-oxford-university-over-sham-contracts

stephenstroud.bsky.social•32 days ago

And to be clear, I understand that much central funding was cut. But most Uni students get very few contact hours. They take on fees plus expensive accommodation but are mostly self taught, online.
If it were any other product, they could send it back and get a refund.

gsoh31.bsky.social•32 days ago

Interest rates on loans to rebuild the knackered plant, I'm afraid, for which almost all help was cut. And massive pension charges beyond our control. And NI rises. It really is that simple I'm afraid.

stephenstroud.bsky.social•32 days ago

Yes, I think that’s fair. I’ve also seen a focus on building vanity projects, though often that was part funded by donors. But our son who graduated last year didn’t see many teaching staff and certainly very few senior ones.
And zero hour contracts for academic staff was unconscionable.

lizellisphd.bsky.social•32 days ago

A lot of Welsh universities including Cardiff as I understand it, have saved on pensions by pushing post doc researchers onto professional services contracts. Academic contract pensions are generous but also the work is precarious.

stephenstroud.bsky.social•32 days ago

If they were previously employees and their working hours haven’t much changed, that could certainly be challenged in court.

lizellisphd.bsky.social•32 days ago

It’s for new hires only. I’m in the crummy position of being way more experienced than some colleagues who were there before me but have £8k pa less in pension contributions. It’s very unfair.

addymax.bsky.social•32 days ago

Uni isn't school - individual study is key. And I deliver roughly the same contact hours now as I myself received in the 80s. The big difference is numbers taught in a class. Vastly higher.

danielwilliams965.bsky.social•29 days ago

Lusting for the petrocaust. Some peoples dicks are too big.

susanglh.bsky.social•31 days ago

Just awful. A huge blow to culture and arts. Inward looking.

willyeckerslyke.bsky.social•32 days ago

And not just Cardiff, the situations looking desperate for all Welsh universities. Something needs to be done, and fast.

gsoh31.bsky.social•32 days ago

The Welsh unis are in by far the worst shape IMHO. It's a scandal.

draustphd.bsky.social•32 days ago

Where's the devolved Welsh govt in all this? Are they going to let Cardiff, which is their 'flagship' major research Uni, go bust??! And/or dump their entire Welsh Uni ecosystem? That seems completely extraordinary.

gsoh31.bsky.social•32 days ago

Exactly what I've been saying. I've got no idea, it's genuinely unbelievable. No sane country would do such a thing.

ishmethit.bsky.social•32 days ago

It's not sustainable but they're not quite in hard times yet either: "Cardiff University has a larger financial reserve than almost all of the other Russell Group universities. At the beginning of this academic year, almost £188m of a total £426m of reserves were available"

gsoh31.bsky.social•32 days ago

That won't go very far if you run a big deficit though. Though there is, I agree, a measure of management teams restructuring the way they want, while they can.

calvjones.bsky.social•32 days ago

Welsh Government has been effectively disinterested in HE for the last 20 years, which has been mirrored by 80=90% of our academics being effectively disinterested in Wales.

calvjones.bsky.social•32 days ago

Future is clearly a more local-civic structure that foregrounds Welsh students and solves Welsh problems, with a far more complementary set of institutions - and maybe a Scottish fees approach.

But that doesn't support 6-figure Professorial salaries, £350k VCs or academic mobility. So won't happen.

juliaann.bsky.social•32 days ago

When I was there, Cardiff Uni had a very healthy Nigerian student intake. Foreign students pay around £30k pa fees these days and recent increases in visa restrictions will have impacted their numbers. Welsh students, meanwhile, are capped at c. £9.5k. Maths.

simon14.bsky.social•32 days ago

That was true in my first year in 1976. One whole floor of my student hall was Nigerian students.

susanglh.bsky.social•31 days ago

I was 1977 to 1982. French degree then PGCE.

simon14.bsky.social•31 days ago

History then PGCE at St Luke’s College, Exeter.

susanglh.bsky.social•31 days ago

Oh I did Part 1 history. Loved mediaeval history with Dr Knowles.

simon14.bsky.social•31 days ago

I was also taught by him, author of Simon de Montfort 1265- 1965.

juliaann.bsky.social•32 days ago

I was '81-'84.

simon14.bsky.social•32 days ago

I enjoyed my time in Cardiff very much and look back fondly.

juliaann.bsky.social•32 days ago

Me too. It's the reason I stayed in South Wales (via Sheffield, Switzerland and Swansea!) We're only about 40 miles away and go there often.

simon14.bsky.social•32 days ago

I’m further away but did go back a few years ago and the library and SU looked remarkably unchanged.

peterjm91.bsky.social•32 days ago

A bubble has been created by too many UK students going to university, inadequate funding increases for UK students, subsidised by increased numbers of foreign students, then Brexit and visa restrictions reducing their numbers. These factors are under control of the Government, not universities.

mattrobb.bsky.social•32 days ago

This mostly isn't the problem. Much more is the combination of flat fees and cost inflation, allied to HEIs moving way too slowly on loss-making activity.

The immigration mess is just highlighting how precarious the situation was.

kirstiebest.bsky.social•32 days ago

Interesting that perspectives on Cardiff's £££ situation are so polarised. Usually seems to be agreement on level of £££ problem, if not the solution.

simon14.bsky.social•32 days ago

Really sorry to hear this about one of my old universities (and indeed of any uni).

susanglh.bsky.social•31 days ago

Yes, I loved my time at, the then, University College Cardiff.

dbartlett.bsky.social•32 days ago

It’s complete madness that this many HEIs are sitting on the edge of the same financial cliff. A decade of Tory buffoonery is largely to blame, but it’s seriously shocking that so many senior leaders made exactly the same mistakes. How did so much mediocrity grasp so much power…

mattrobb.bsky.social•32 days ago

In my experience, VCs know the situation. They don't know how to get the academic bodies to accept the inevitable. So they wait until it's a crisis and there are no choices left.

markrubin.bsky.social•32 days ago

Management doen't seem to be handling the communication process very well!

"Staff in departments across the university have received invitations to meetings to discuss 'academic futures'. One email said: 'I appreciate that a meeting of this kind will cause anxiety.'

markrubin.bsky.social•32 days ago

Estelle Hart from UCU Cymru said management at Cardiff had "caused speculation by not communicating".

"Sending emails out inviting people to meetings seemingly without any pre-warning is going to cause such anxiety."

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