A short statement in reaction to the news today that Aberystwyth University seeks to make £16 million in savings, which includes major cuts to academic staff.

 

Aberystwyth University UCU are devastated and angry by the announcement that over 150 jobs are to be lost at Aberystwyth University. This follows the loss of more than 150 colleagues in the last eighteen months in the previous round of restructuring.

Most of these cuts will fall on teaching and research staff. We estimate a quarter to a third of our academic staff will not be employed at the university by this time next year. Coming after previous rounds of job losses they represent a devastating blow to our university, our students and our community.

According to official figures between 2014 and 2025 Aberystwyth University lost over 450 posts (200 non-academic, 250 academic). That excludes jobs lost last year and the ones announced today. This is part of a wider crisis in higher education. Welsh universities are facing significant deficits, making massive cuts and increasing numbers of job losses with official data showing a fall of around 640 staff in 2024/25 alone. Figures for this year will be even starker.

The scale and speed

Staff are shocked by the scale and speed of what is being proposed. Behind every job is a person, a family, and years of knowledge, expertise and commitment that help make Aberystwyth University what it is.

We recognise the financial pressure that Aberystwyth University is under. Every year we are asked to do more with less. Those of us who will be left will no doubt work harder than ever to teach, research, shape and support the lives of young people from Wales and those far beyond it.

These losses will not only affect those who leave. They will place far greater pressure on the already hard-pressed staff who remain and have real consequences for teaching, research and student experience and for our members welfare. We are concerned these losses are the ones that could break the camel’s back.

Wider impacts for mid Wales

Aberystwyth University is one of the most important institutions in mid Wales contributing close to £200 million to the regional economy. The impact of these redundancies will be felt far beyond the campus, affecting the wider job market, local businesses and supply chains, public services, voluntary groups and the wider community. They will impoverish communities throughout the region, impacting Ceredigion’s schools and the Welsh language. Our town will be made less.

We will work urgently to examine the proposals, fight to protect jobs and press for every possible alternative. We remain opposed to compulsory redundancies.

Ultimately, this announcement exposes the fundamentally broken nature of the market model of higher education – precisely the failure we hope the Review of Higher Education in Wales will address. But that will not lessen the damage being done here, now.

It’s not just another round of cuts

This announcement cannot be allowed to pass as ‘just another round of cuts’. Once jobs, expertise and subject areas are hollowed out, they are extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.

The Welsh Government must act immediately to prevent further damage and help save jobs. Delay will only make the consequences more severe for our university, our community and the future of mid Wales.

Aberystwyth UCU

 

A short note on the claims:- HESA – the official statistics reporting body for higher education – reports that in 2024/25 there were 511 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) academic staff at Aber Uni. This is a combination of the full and part-time staff which was 690. The FTE is the figure used in budget planning, so that is the figure used in our estimate of the proportion of academic staff at risk.