Mass campaign needed to stop job losses and course closures at Cardiff university

By Dave Reid

Workers and students have reacted with shock, although not so much surprise, at the disgraceful announcement of 400 job losses and the cutting of dozens of courses by Cardiff University. Many staff have been in tears as whole departments that have existed for decades are being closed and others merged:

• Ancient History, Modern Languages and Translation Programmes; Music; Nursing; and Religion and Theology will be closed down.
• Biosciences; Cardiff Business School; Chemistry; Computer Sciences; Engineering; English, Communication and Philosophy; Geography and Planning; History, Archaeology and Religion; Mathematics; Medicine; Modern Languages; Social Sciences; and Welsh will all lose staff, many 50% of their staff.

The £290,000 a year vice chancellor has defended the swingeing cuts claiming that the university was losing £30 million a year and is facing an “existential crisis”.

But the University and College Union (UCU) has pointed out that the university has larger financial reserves than most universities – £188 million is available to plug current losses. And incredibly while sacking 400 highly skilled workers and cutting courses it is aiming to make between £23 million – £35 million profits for the next three academic years from the cuts.

The UCU has condemned the cuts as “cruel and unnecessary”, will fight any compulsory redundancies and is preparing to ballot for strike action.

And the job losses follow the recent wasteful spending on multimillion vanity projects by the board to raise the prestige of the university to investors and wealthy international students rather than on the pay, conditions, pensions and now jobs of university staff.

These cuts come on top of the increase in tuition fees to £9,535 a year that the Welsh Labour government has said the university can charge students from September 2025.

Now is an opportunity to unite the struggles of university staff facing job losses and students struggling with the cost of living crisis, fee rises and now course closures. Cardiff Socialist Students is demanding that the students union takes an unequivocal stance opposing all job cuts and course closures and fights alongside the UCU and other campus unions to defend education at the university. Socialist Students have said they will mobilise to support any industrial action the UCU and other unions take at the university.

400 job losses will be a blow to the Cardiff economy and the loss of the nursing school will hit the NHS in Wales. So the whole trade union movement and local communities must unite behind the workers and students at Cardiff University to oppose these cuts. A mass campaign can force the university to back down.

These cuts also expose the effects of privatisation, commercialisation and real-term government cuts to university funding. A mass campaign by UCU and NUS must be launched to save university education in the UK and to make it equally available to all.

Socialist Party Wales calls for a mass campaign of university workers, students, trade unions and students to demand:

• No job losses, no course closures at Cardiff University
• The university board to use available reserves to plug the current gap and demand sufficient funding from the UK government to maintain courses and departments at Cardiff University
• Open the books at Cardiff University to see where the income is being spent and the investments made
• End the commercialisation of university education – return it to a public service rather than a profit-making business
• Democratise the university. For a board to be elected by university workers, students, the local community and trade unions. And for the vice-chancellor to be on the same wage as a head of department.
• Proper funding for all universities, take the wealth off the super-rich
• Eliminate tuition fees, and reintroduce maintenance grants for all
• End low pay, job cuts, and ‘casualisation’ of higher education workers
• Funding Not Fees