The University of Edinburgh is set to lose “around 350 staff” members as part of efforts to cut £140 million from its annual budget.

Principal Peter Mathieson, has told staff that those leaving have taken voluntary severance after a scheme was opened earlier this year and the university’s job cuts will deliver year-on-year savings of “approximately £18 million”.

This leaves the university still some way off its savings targets, however. Mathieson wrote to staff in February outlining that the university needed to save £140 million from its annual budget – equivalent to about 10 per cent of its annual turnover.

Unions at the time accused the university of “manufacturing a crisis”, after the institution posted a £25 million surplus for 2023-24.

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Mathieson said that it is “continuing to look at all aspects of cost reduction”, which includes “both staff and non-staff operating costs”. The university will introduce a pause in academic promotions, and said “further work will be needed to achieve a stable and sustainable staff base in the long term and we are taking time to consider our approach”.

“Managers were asked to consider the impact on colleagues as part of the voluntary severance application approval process and to ensure that workloads are managed effectively, particularly where staff will be leaving the organisation,” he added.

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“We appreciate that this is causing uncertainty within our community. We are continuing to liaise with our joint trade unions and are providing regular updates as we take the necessary steps to ensure a financially sustainable future.”

Sophia Woodman, UCU Edinburgh branch president, said that the union was balloting on industrial action over the university’s failure to rule out compulsory redundancies, despite the savings made through the voluntary severance scheme. She urged its management to return to negotiations “to avert strike action”.

“The campus unions at Edinburgh are deeply disappointed that despite making savings from the voluntary severance scheme, university management is refusing to rule out further job cuts. Edinburgh is not in deficit, and there is no need for the extreme cuts being proposed,” she said.

UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, said that it was “ludicrous” that the university was still considering further job cuts.

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“Edinburgh University is one of Scotland’s oldest and most respected universities with an unparalleled reputation internationally. University leaders need to reconsider these brutal cuts and focus on their responsibility to protect workers’ jobs and the university’s reputation and future,” Grady said.

The Scottish government has so far made available £22 million to the University of Dundee, whose leaders told a Scottish education committee meeting that insolvency was “a real possibility” for the struggling provider.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com