‘Around 350’ University of Edinburgh staff to take voluntary redundancy

Around 350 staff at the University of Edinburgh have taken voluntary redundancy amidst a troubling financial period for many of Scotland’s universities, the institution’s principal has confirmed.

Earlier this year, the university confirmed it was seeking to make cuts of £140m to address a black hole in its finances.  

In a statement, Peter Mathieson announced the number of staff that have taken voluntary redundancies and how much money that will save.   

He said: “The university’s voluntary severance scheme has concluded and around 350 staff will take voluntary severance, which will deliver year-on-year savings of approximately £18m – an important part of our drive to save costs.” 

Staff that have opted to take part in the severance scheme will receive formal confirmation on 30 April. Mathieson also confirmed there will be freeze on all promotions during the next academic term. 

He added: “We have also agreed to pause academic promotions until we reach a more stable financial position. This means that there will be no application process opening in the academic year 2025–26. 

“I realise that this will disappoint our academic colleagues, but this is needed to further contribute to our overall cost-saving measures. We will use this intervening period to make improvements to future academic promotions processes based on the feedback we received through the review held last year.” 

The university currently employs more than 5,400 academic staff and around 7,200 administrative staff, according to figures published in December 2024. 

Mathieson also stressed the institution needs to “deliver further changes to our size, shape and ways of working”. 

He said: “I and others have previously stated that it is not possible at this stage to rule out compulsory redundancies. 

“The subsequent level of staff savings that will still need to be made is being assessed, and budget holders have been working to identify proposed savings as part of the planning round decision-making process. 

“This work is informing the development of an overall budget and five-year plan, for presentation to [the university] court in the summer.” 

Mathieson added that the financial issues are “by no means exclusive to our university”. 

The University of Dundee has also estimated that 700 jobs will be affected by saving measures.