University of East Anglia boss looks to job cuts to slash deficit

A university boss said it would be "compassionate" with staff and students while it reduced the "head count" to tackle a multimillion-pound deficit.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) is facing a £30m deficit for 2023-2024 and potentially £45m in three years.

New vice chancellor Prof David Maguire said boosting the student intake and shrinking the staff bill would address the issues "quite quickly".

A member of campaign group Save UEA said prospects were "frightening".

Amid growing tension on campus, a security guard attended a recent staff assembly meeting, as reported by the Eastern Daily Press, and the students' union council passed a no-confidence vote in the UEA executive team.

On Monday - the first day in the role - Prof Maguire said: "Not surprisingly, staff and students are anxious; these are difficult times for the university."

The security presence had been "slightly overplayed" and was "not a big thing", he added.

"Changes do need to be brought in, but these are things that we will work with the community to try to ease their impact," he said.

"We will be compassionate, we will work with staff and we will do the changes as quickly, as easily and as smoothly as we can."

Student applications to UEA were down 16% this year compared to 2022, with 2,792 fewer students seeking places at the Norwich-based institution.

In 2021-22, the UEA made a £74m loss. The vice-chancellor at the time, Prof David Richardson, resigned in February and was replaced by an interim.

"There are two big things we need to look at - one is increasing the number of students and our incomes from students," said Prof Maguire.

"The other is keeping a good control of costs and the main cost is staff, the staff salary bill, and pensions.

"We need to look hard at that and we need to reduce the head count."

He said, where possible, staff cuts would be by voluntary redundancy and the UEA had held back on a pay increase.

In April, the university said staff agreeing to leave their posts had so far saved it more than £6m.

"Taken together, all of these measures will address the deficit quite quickly and allow the university to move forward on a much firmer footing," said Prof Maguire.

He said the executive hoped to take a "big chunk out of the deficit in the next 12 months".

"It'll probably be one year beyond that before we can get back to a break-even position and we will seek to rebuild the balance sheet in years to come beyond that."

Student John Hodson, a member of Save UEA, said he was "panicking" about the future for his advisor, whose expertise he needed to finish his PhD.

"It's incredibly frightening - I don't know if all the services available to me and other students will still be here when we come back in September."

Asked about the executive team, he said: "We will wait and see with David Maguire, as for the other members of the team, we don't have confidence in them at all.

"We feel they made this mess and we don't feel that they can fix it."

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk