UWS lecturers end strikes after no compulsory redundancy 'guarantee'

Members of the EIS union staged walkouts in September and October

Lecturers at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) have ended strike action after receiving what they say is a guarantee of no compulsory redundances for academic staff.

Members of the EIS union staged a series of walkouts in September and October in a dispute over planned job losses.

The university previously sought to make the equivalent of 75 full-time academic roles redundant.

It had a deficit of £14.4m in 2023-24 and its governing body has agreed an £8.4m deficit for the current financial year.

About 1,565 staff work at UWS which has sites in Ayr, Dumfries, Lanarkshire, London and its largest campus in Paisley, which has about 7,000 students.

The EIS had argued the job losses would lead to fewer courses being offered and affect the quality of learning and teaching.

The university said it had seen a "significant reduction" of 1,800 funded places since 2022/23 and was operating in a "very challenging financial environment" but it added that compulsory redundancies were "never an active proposal".

Lecturers voted to go on strike following a ballot in July.

It resulted in eight days of industrial action before a resolution was reached.

The EIS said it viewed the outcome as "a clear victory" for staff.

The union's general secretary Andrea Bradley said: "It is incredibly encouraging that, through constructive dialogue, the University of the West of Scotland has finally agreed to remove the threat of compulsory redundancies.

"The decision to strike is never one taken lightly but was a necessary last resort in this long-running dispute, and the outcome proves the immense value of collective action."

The UWS spokesperson said: "As a result of the prudent and proactive steps taken by the university, including progress achieved via a voluntary severance scheme, we advised colleagues on 17 October there will be no compulsory redundancies as part of our organisational change project, which is designed to ensure the institution remains on a sustainable financial footing, the spokesperson said.

"UWS was never seeking to make redundancies, and compulsory redundancies were never an active proposal.

"Nevertheless, we welcome EIS's decision to end its industrial action, which avoids any further disruption for our students."

A number of Scottish universities are seeking to make redundancies.

Dundee University is cutting 632 full-time jobs – a fifth of its workforce - as it tries to tackle a £35m deficit, and its underlying financial position looks even worse.

The University of Edinburgh is looking to make £140m of cuts over the next year. That figure is equivalent to about a tenth of the annual spending at the institution, which now has about 15,000 staff on its payroll.

Aberdeen University has also cut staff through voluntary redundancy programmes, while the city's Robert Gordon University has put 135 roles "at risk" - which usually means they are bound to go.