A vote of no confidence in the University of Sheffield’s senior leadership has been made in a recent meeting.
Staff and postgraduate researchers vote by 93.3% that they have ‘no confidence’ in the Vice Chancellor and University Executive board.
This follows the announcement of a voluntary severance scheme aimed at reducing staff costs.
1000 people attended the meeting and 944 people took part in the vote, whilst the university employs around 9000 members of staff, so only a proportion were represented.
However, we spoke to a UCU representative for professional services staff who raised concerns and said:
“There’s a lot of anger at the mismanagement.
“A lot of professional services staff have already been through at least one restructure in the last few years, and what happens each time is we lose good people, institutional knowledge and the people who know what they’re doing, which is difficult”.
The current time for staff has been uncertain, as the UCU representative said: “There’s a lot of secrecy, and I think a lot of the secrecy has come from them not knowing what they were going to do”.
The UCU representative added: “All of the things that affect staff will have a knock on effect on students.
“This isn’t a financial crisis, it’s a crisis that management have made for themselves”.
University staff have shown concern for some decisions made by the executive board, for example the failed ‘Student Lifecycle project’, where over £30 million was spent over the span of a decade.
A spokesperson for the University of Sheffield, said: “The University sector is facing unprecedented financial difficulties and
We are committed to navigating these challenges responsibly and transparently, whilst continuing to deliver an excellent student experience.
“As part of a range of measures to address a financial shortfall, we have introduced a voluntary severance scheme in selected areas of the University.
“The sector-wide challenges mean we must remain flexible and agile to protect our excellent research and teaching, and we will be taking considered decisions to ensure the institution’s long-term sustainability and success.”
Recently, the University has been ranked within the top 100 best universities in the Times Higher Education World University rankings, rated number one in the Russell Group in the National Student Survey (NSS) for the second year in a row, as well as students voting it ‘University of the Year’ in the Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2024.
However the vote of no confidence also follows the closure of the archaeology department, where staff have been split between the History department and Biosciences.
Forge spoke to a representative from the archaeology department, who shared their thoughts on this and said: “We are trying to stay alive between these two faculties.
“How is that going to improve the quality of the University if we have less to offer?”
They added: “I feel like everything is being done very secretly, it feels secretive because sometimes you hear things you are not supposed to know, so I really think it is very under the table, that’s how it feels to me.”
In regards to the severance scheme, they said they were worried and that ‘it is a lot of frustration and stress’.
The University emphasises the scheme is not compulsory, it is an action the University has taken to address a financial shortfall alongside a range of non-staff reductions, including reviewing capital spending and university buildings and reducing discretionary expenditure.
For example, the University has paused construction for the new central teaching laboratory.
John R Collis, an Emeritus professor from the University of Sheffield told us his views of this decision following the closure of the Archaeology department.
He said: “There was a meeting of council which was called to largely decide what to do about archaeology and this was for me one of the most disgraceful meetings ever held in the university.
“There were no archaeologists there to put our opinion and we had no input into the meeting at all.”
Mr Collis explained how he had sent in a complaint, and followed the rules in the staff code of conduct to do so, however he ‘had no evidence’ anyone had ‘even bothered to look at it’.
Finally, he added: “I think we’re just being treated as staff, we should be treated as colleagues
“So you can see 50 years of my life has just been destroyed by these rather ignorant people
“This is not how a university should be run.”
The spokesperson from the University added: “We recognise this is a difficult time for colleagues and are firmly committed to supporting our staff and working constructively with our trade unions throughout this period, whilst maintaining the high standards of academic excellence for which Sheffield is renowned.”
