Bristol UCU notes:
Devastating redundancies are being rushed through in CALD.
The announcement of redundancies has taken place when staff are in a period of intensive teaching and marking and have no time to analyse or comprehend these plans.
The proposed consultation timeline includes annual leave, when many affected staff cannot take part in meaningful consultation, and even the Centre Director and Centre Manager are on annual leave.
The proposed notice period is timed during the period when affected tutors will be teaching intensive summer pre-sessional courses.
The business case and the IFP student number forecasting for 2025-26 do not stand up to scrutiny.
The proposals disproportionately affect lower academic grades.
Wholly inadequate consultation with Bristol UCU has taken place before these plans were fully formed, which potentially breaches our Recognition Agreement.
Bristol UCU believes:
The proposed redundancies are unnecessary as swift actions can be taken now to improve international student numbers for 2025-26, such as urgent recalibration of entry requirements and other actions to attract international students.
Any risks related to entry requirement recalibration can be mitigated with our expert CALD staff supporting IFP students not only towards IFP progression, but also through first year to second year undergraduate progression.
The timing of these proposals and the proposed consultation timeline has caused unnecessary stress and anxiety amongst CALD staff.
Unions need to be given adequate time to analyse the business case and IFP student number forecasting.
Full financial information and IFP student forecasting figures related to this restructure must be shared transparently with unions.
Lower grades of staff should not be disproportionately singled out for redundancy during a restructure.
All actions to prevent redundancies must be taken by the university immediately.
There is a potential conflict of interest and concerns around the role of the private provider, Kaplan.
The proposed redundancies in particular create extreme precariousness and risk for immigrant workers.
These proposals risk a slow ‘fire and rehire’ of expert staff, and/or the casualisation of these expert permanent staff.
These proposals create significant reputational risk for the university and risk potential negative impacts on the QS Rankings on which international students can rely.
Bristol UCU resolves:
To campaign in support of affected staff to stop redundancies in CALD.
To campaign in support of stopping the consultation clock in CALD.
To negotiate with and work with the university to stop redundancies in CALD.
Proposer: Donna Mac Lean
Seconder: Tania Kaya