Stop The Cuts!

University College London could make "unprecedented" compulsory academic redundancies, a move that follows dozens of job cuts at Imperial College London. As part of a drive to find £3 million in savings in its faculty of life sciences, UCL has set up a "redundancy committee", as required by its governing statutes if it is considering forcing academics out.

At Imperial, 21 academic and 27 non-academic posts have been cut in the faculty of medicine. Both UCL and Imperial are members of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities, which this month warned that UK higher education faced "meltdown" as a result of government budget cuts.

This week the University of Westminster told staff that it will cut 285 jobs by the end of July, equal to 156 full-time equivalent posts. The reductions initially will be delivered through a voluntary scheme. Westminster wants to break even and reduce staff costs to less than 60 per cent of its budget.