Union members at Sheffield Hallam University have begun voting on whether they will continue their recent industrial action.
According to the University and College Union (UCU), more than 140 staff have left the university under the voluntary severance scheme, with 120 more placed at “risk of redundancy.”
The union says that the university has “prioritised buildings over people”, and that they are now “paying the price for their poor decision making.”
Martin Smith, a UCU member and senior lecturer in journalism at the university, said: “The university has spent a ton of money on buildings – I think £40 million on a shiny new building you see as you come out the station and a new campus in London – but they’re getting rid of staff.
“Obviously they planned the buildings years ahead, probably when the interest rates were 0% and now they’re 4 or 5% – so there’s a problem there, and the first thing they do is to cut staff.
“I do have mixed feelings about what we’re doing as a union, but you can’t let that go without registering some kind of opposition.”
The action has caused large-scale disruption to teaching in the past, with similar strikes last year seeing hundreds of university staff taking part.
However, the university itself disputes many of the claims made by the union.
A spokesperson from Sheffield Hallam University said: “Sheffield Hallam remains one of the largest and most popular universities in the country, with Gold-rated teaching and award-winning research.
“But, like many other universities, we are having to make tough decisions about the way we operate due to pressures that are largely out of our control – such as the decade-long flat UK undergraduate fee, rising pension costs and changes to visa rules that restrict international student recruitment.
“We are disappointed that UCU has chosen to ballot members for industrial action, despite our engaging thoroughly with trade union representatives on plans that support maintaining a healthy financial position and keeping redundancies to a minimum, in light of the well-documented challenges that universities across the UK face.
“Our mission to transform lives will continue to shape all that we do, and we will work to ensure that any changes we make over the period ahead are consistent with this ambition.”
