University staff to be balloted over strike action

A spokesman for Lancaster University said it "is having to make very difficult, but necessary decisions"

Teaching and research staff at Lancaster University are to be balloted about strike action in October.

Staff are unhappy about the threat of compulsory redundancies, as the university seeks to cut 400 full-time posts as part of efforts to save £30m, amid rising costs and a fall in international student numbers.

Dr Sunil Banga, branch president of the University and Colleges Union, said there was still "an opportunity for the university to sit down and negotiate", with proposed walkouts timed to coincide with students arriving for the new term.

The university said while compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out, every effort is being made to try to find savings "through voluntary means".

'Financial pressures'

Dr Banga said the union is "very happy" to discuss "which courses make money, or not, in the university's terms".

But he called those terms "a very wrong way of looking at the university's purpose".

He added: "Compulsory redundancy is something that is completely unacceptable to our members."

A spokesman for Lancaster University said it was having to make "very difficult, but necessary decisions in the light of financial pressures impacting the whole UK university sector".

"The university is seeking to find total cost-savings of £30m from our payroll budget, across both academic and professional services.

"We recognise that this is a deeply unsettling time for our staff, students, and the communities we serve, and we do not enter into this process lightly.

"However, achieving financial sustainability is essential to securing the university's future."

Lancaster University employs the full-time equivalent of 1,300 academic staff and 1,700 professional services staff.

It has around 10,000 students from Great Britain and the EU, with another 3,000 from elsewhere overseas.