Planned industrial action at Cardiff University has been called off after its management committed to not making any compulsory redundancies this year.

The Cardiff branch of the University and College Union (UCU) said its members have voted to accept the university management’s offer to issue no compulsory redundancies in 2025, in return for calling off planned strikes and a marking and assessment boycott, and agreeing to not instigate further industrial action under their current mandate.

The agreement will also see Cardiff University commit to “reset” relations with its staff and work in a more collaborative way with campus unions, after things increasingly turned increasingly sour during the dispute. At one point the university threatened to investigate the union under its dignity at work policy for comments made to the press about vice-chancellor Wendy Larner.

Earlier this year Cardiff announced plans to cut 400 full-time-equivalent roles, sparking concern among staff and the wider community, who feared the move would “devastate” Welsh higher education. In response UCU had been making extensive plans for industrial action, including announcing a marking and assessment boycott that would target this year’s exams, and strikes. 

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A Cardiff UCU spokesperson called the announcement a “big victory”, but cautioned: “The problems faced by staff at Cardiff University are far from over.”

They said: “Our members are still deeply unhappy with the restructuring process, and the way it is being delivered. For that reason, we’ve also decided to seek to renew our industrial action mandate when the current one expires. Trust and confidence in the university executive board has been destroyed, and this will take time to rebuild.”

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But the spokesperson added: “They fully met our key demand under the current mandate for action, and we welcome that…We truly welcome the new partnership-led approach the university has committed to, and we look forward to working much more closely together than we’ve been able to so far.”

A Cardiff University spokesperson said that the news that strikes were being called off was a “welcome relief”.

“We are very pleased that we have been able to arrive at this point, and we reconfirm our desire to work in partnership for the benefit of students, staff and our wider university community. We hope now to move forward with more positive and constructive talks with our campus trade unions on how we can work together to address our immediate financial challenges and secure the university’s long-term future,” the spokesperson said.

Despite the progress, UCU has stressed that more than 1,000 jobs still remain at risk as members that were at risk of compulsory redundancy have not been taken out of scope of its voluntary severance scheme.

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The union noted that a number of schools – including music and modern foreign languages – are still set for closure. “The branch has committed to continue to make the case for preserving these disciplines at the university”, it said.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com