Queen’s University Belfast has launched a voluntary severance scheme in order to reduce its “recurrent costs” and support the return of the annual operating budget to a “break-even position”.
The university has recorded an operational deficit of £12.7 million (€15.3 million) for the 2023-2024 academic year, according to a letter written to staff on Monday.
In that correspondence, the university’s interim vice-president and chief people officer Alistair Finlay said the deficit was as a result of “financial headwinds”.
“This issue has recently been compounded by the increased national insurance costs introduced by the chancellor of the exchequer,” he said.
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Mr Finlay said similar to other UK higher education institutions, Queen’s University had undertaken a number of actions to manage costs, including maximising income where possible, controls on staff recruitment, a reduction in operating expenditure budgets and critical evaluation of investment plans.
However, despite these measures and other initiatives implemented to date, Mr Finlay said the financial gap “remains significant and further intervention is required”.
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He outlined that the voluntary severance scheme is now open for applications until Friday, February 14th. All staff who have at least one year’s continuous service as of Monday are eligible to apply, with the exception of those staff who have a confirmed, formally agreed leaving date.
Mr Finlay said the university had no plans for compulsory redundancies “as part of this scheme”. Those interested can “get an indication” of their severance payment by using an estimate tool.
The University and College Union (UCU) at Queen’s University has called an emergency general meeting for this Thursday.
“The meeting is in response to the university’s continued recruitment in non-student-facing and non-research roles while simultaneously pursuing plans for international expansion, including the announcement of a QUB campus opening in India,” it said.
“The university receives significant funding from the department for the economy, yet it is directing taxpayer money into axing jobs in Northern Ireland while creating them on foreign shores.”
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