UWS lecturers vote to strike over redundancies

The University of the West of Scotland is seeking to cut 75 jobs

Lecturers at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) have voted to go on strike in a dispute over planned job losses.

The university is seeking 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.

The EIS union's University Lecturers Association said their members had "delivered a strong mandate" with 94% of those who voted supporting the strike action.

UWS is one of a number of Scottish universities seeking to make redundancies.

About 2,000 staff work at UWS which has sites in Ayr, Dumfries, Hamilton, London and its largest campus in Paisley, which has about 10,000 students.

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

It has called for talks with UWS management and strike dates have yet to be announced.

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".

A UWS spokesperson said: "The university is committed to mitigating the impact on staff, with a focus on employment retention where possible – thus, the majority of savings will be delivered through stringent vacancy management.

"Our approach has been transparent from the outset and we have been very clear that compulsory redundancies would be a last resort.

"In line with this commitment, at our most recent all-staff meeting colleagues were advised that a voluntary severance scheme for affected colleagues has now been shared with the recognised trade unions."