Unions fear that up to 10,000 university positions are threatened.

A union warned that as many as 10,000 jobs in universities could be lost as the UK’s higher education faces an “unprecedented crises”.

The University and College Union’s (UCU) new data shows that 5,361 jobs are at risk. It also claims that thousands of workers may lose their job during the current academic year due to a funding shortfall.

The UCU claims that at least five other universities had requested resignations, but did not disclose the reduction target in their budget for staff. Meanwhile, the sector revealed planned cuts totaling PS238 millions.

The union announced the announcement as it launched a campaign titled ‘Stop Cuts, fund Higher Education Now!’ and urged the government to act immediately.

UCU members have responded to these threats by going on strike. Members of UCU walked out last week at Brunel, and today, Dundee, Newcastle and Dundee universities are also on strike.

The strike ballots for Durham and Durham University are also underway.

Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary, said that UK higher education was on its knees. “Thousands of jobs are set to disappear across the sector.” It will have a huge impact on students and certain courses are already being discontinued.

Our union has won votes and is fighting to protect current students’ jobs and the course provision they receive, as well as future generations. The cuts that university bosses want to impose threaten the provision of courses and jobs across the country.

The courses at risk are nursing at Cardiff University and chemistry at Hull University. Business and languages are also at risk at Northumbria University.

The union said that the cuts would harm students, and urged the government to support the sector as it established an alternative funding model.

Grady stated: “Unless UK government steps up, like the Welsh and Scottish governments, this could just be the tip. We need an immediate emergency fund to safeguard jobs and courses. Then, the government should begin to look at a public model for funding and regulating the sector.”

The UCU wants to review “all aspects” of university governance, including the salaries of vice-chancellors. These salaries are allegedly now on average PS325,000.

Grady continued: “For too long, vice chancellors have fueled this crisis, by fighting to horde domestic and international students and creating a boom-and-bust cycle. They failed to invest when times were good and now ask staff and students to bear the cost of their mismanagement.

The bodies tasked with overseeing the governance of universities have become hollowed-out and are often asleep at their desks, allowing vice chancellors to behave like reckless CEOs. Labour should review the sector’s governance structures and stop university leaders from being paid huge amounts of money for failing.

Universities UK, the organisation that represents and supports 141 universities, has highlighted the fact that vice-chancellors have been forced to take very difficult decisions, and called on the government to continue taking action to assist the sector in achieving financial stability.

“The financial challenges that universities face in the UK’s four nations are real and grave,” said a spokesperson. The responsibility for ensuring that universities remain financially sound lies with university leaders. Vice chancellors had to make some very difficult decisions. Universities UK has established a Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce that will support the universities in this process.

Universities UK says that “sustained actions” are needed to “put the great universities of this country on a solid financial footing”.

The spokesperson said: “We must ensure that governments from all four countries grasp the nettle in order to prevent the gradual degradation of our wonderful university system.”

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