Copyright bbc
The university said it had seen a "significant reduction" of 1,800 funded places since 2022/23 and was operating in a "very challenging financial environment". Lecturers voted to go on strike following a ballot in July. It resulted in eight days of industrial action before a resolution was reached. The EIS said it viewed the outcome as "a clear victory" for staff. The union's general secretary Andrea Bradley said: "It is incredibly encouraging that, through constructive dialogue, the University of the West of Scotland has finally agreed to remove the threat of compulsory redundancies. "The decision to strike is never one taken lightly but was a necessary last resort in this long-running dispute, and the outcome proves the immense value of collective action." UWS has been approached for comment. It is one of a number of Scottish universities seeking to make redundancies. Dundee University is cutting 632 full-time jobs – a fifth of its workforce - as it tries to tackle a £35m deficit, and its underlying financial position looks even worse. The University of Edinburgh is looking to make £140m of cuts over the next year. That figure is equivalent to about a tenth of the annual spending at the institution, which now has about 15,000 staff on its payroll. Aberdeen University has also cut staff through voluntary redundancy programmes, while the city's Robert Gordon University has put 135 roles "at risk" - which usually means they are bound to go.
