Stop compulsory redundancies at Brunel University of London

Brunel University of London management have expressed their intention to move forward with plans for further compulsory redundancies in 2025-26. This comes after a year of decimation in 2024-25, when the institution put more than a third of staff at risk of compulsory redundancy, and over 465 staff members, amounting to around 20% of the workforce, left Brunel as a result of multiple redundancy schemes.

The cited reason for the redundancies is financial challenges due to a drop in international student numbers, factors that Brunel management claim are ‘beyond their control’. However, Brunel UCU feels that at Brunel, this UK-wide situation has been exacerbated by management decisions which saw e.g. hundreds of new staff hired in 2023-24 to support a rapid expansion of PGT provision, and an increase in tuition fees for international students in 2024-25 to a level higher than that of other institutions.

Brunel’s continued threat and pursuit of compulsory redundancies, as well as its refusal to engage meaningfully with Brunel UCU, left the union with no choice but to call an academic boycott (greylisting) in April 2025, the most serious sanction UCU can impose on an employer.

The mass redundancies so far have already had a significantly detrimental impact on the workload, wellbeing, stress levels, and mental health of remaining Brunel staff, as well as significantly damaging the provision of teaching and support services to our 11,000+ students. Further redundancies will compound these issues and threaten the very viability of the university.

We call on Brunel senior management to:

• halt its pursuit of compulsory redundancies, and if cost savings are necessary, that the university prioritises non-pay cost savings prior to redundancies
• commit in writing to an independent investigation into the local circumstances that led to and/or contributed to the financial challenges facing Brunel University of London
• commit in writing to the spirit and text of the Recognition and Partnership Agreement and the definition of meaningful consultation contained therein.