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NewsBusiness News · 12 Nov

University of Nottingham plans 560 role cuts as campus suffers £64.5m write-down

Nottingham plans 560 role reductions after a £64.5m Castle Meadow write-down. Strike action is paused, but questions remain over finances and courses.

Staff Reporter

The University of Nottingham is planning to remove around 560 full-time-equivalent posts and end degree provision in some subjects as it restructures its finances. Its accounts also show that £64.5 million has been written off the value of Castle Meadow, a city-centre campus bought and developed for nearly £80 million. Staff strikes were suspended on 12 November 2026 after an improved offer, but the redundancy dispute is not over.

Illustrative composite of a traditional university building and modern office campus with financial graphics

The decisions have raised questions about how a leading Russell Group university came to be cutting its workforce and course portfolio while putting a recently developed campus up for sale. The available evidence establishes the scale of the financial reversal and the sequence of Council decisions. It does not, by itself, prove that the property investment caused the job cuts.

What has happened to the strikes?

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted on 11 November to suspend strike action from 12 November after the university made an improved offer with measures intended to reduce redundancies. The union stressed that negotiations were continuing and the underlying dispute remained unresolved.

The autumn walkout had begun on 5 October and was originally scheduled to run until 11 December, following strike days on 30 September and 1 October. Earlier action included a marking and assessment boycott beginning on 20 May, a strike on 22 May and extensive action in June and July.

UCU wants the university to avoid compulsory redundancies and reconsider the loss of academic disciplines. University management maintains that substantial organisational change is needed to restore long-term financial sustainability. The terms of the latest offer have not been fully disclosed, so the pause should not be presented as a final settlement.

How many jobs are being cut?

In the initial phase-two proposal, the university identified 2,697 staff as potentially at risk and proposed a reduction of approximately 608 to 609 full-time-equivalent (FTE) posts. Being placed in an at-risk pool does not mean a person has been dismissed, and an FTE reduction is not necessarily a one-for-one count of employees.

On 1 October 2026, University Council approved a revised Future Nottingham plan reducing the proposed post removals to about 560 FTE, with new positions also being introduced. The university said it had considered alternative proposals from staff and unions and had amended aspects of its original plans.

The earlier first phase was separate. Council documents anticipated around 347 staff departures by autumn 2025, and unions have described roughly 350 people leaving, mainly in professional and support functions. Those earlier exits should not simply be added to the proposed 560 FTE reduction and labelled compulsory redundancies.

As of 12 November, negotiations about avoiding compulsory dismissals remain live. There is no verified basis for saying that 560 members of staff have already been sacked.

Why does an £85.3m deficit not tell the whole story?

The university’s signed financial statements for the year to 31 July 2025 show an adjusted deficit of £85.3 million. Its statutory deficit for the year was £76.8 million, after other gains and valuation movements.

Crucially, the adjusted figure includes £74.8 million in impairments of fixed assets. An impairment is an accounting reduction in the value attributed to an existing asset, not a payment of £74.8 million made in that year. The university also recorded £11.3 million in restructuring costs.

The losses cannot be dismissed as merely an accounting exercise, however. The university held £59.2 million in cash and cash equivalents at 31 July 2025, down from £69.9 million a year earlier. Its £80 million revolving credit facility was undrawn at the year end. Management has argued that without reform the institution’s longer-term finances would become unsustainable.

The accounts received an unqualified audit opinion and were prepared on a going-concern basis. They therefore do not establish that the university was already insolvent or facing immediate closure.

Castle Meadow: a £78.9m asset valued at as little as £14.4m

The university purchased the former HMRC complex at Castle Meadow in 2021 for £37.5 million. More than £40 million was subsequently invested in adapting it for university use. The audited accounts put the site’s book value, including the purchase and subsequent building works, at £78.9 million.

An external valuation estimated potential disposal proceeds of £14.4 million to £18 million, depending on occupation and successful letting of space. The university adopted the lower figure and recognised a £64.5 million impairment specifically against Castle Meadow. The balance of its total £74.8 million fixed-asset impairment related to other property, including King’s Meadow.

These figures should not be confused with a completed sale or an actual cash loss of £64.5 million on disposal. Castle Meadow was put on the market in June 2026, with CBRE appointed to seek a purchaser. We have not established that the sale has completed, or what price it might ultimately achieve.

Nor was the campus entirely unused or incapable of operating. University Business School activities have taken place there, and other educational organisations have used parts of the complex. The issue is that a substantial investment in a new campus was followed by a sharp change in strategy and an exceptionally large reduction in its recorded value.

What did the university’s governing Council know?

The published minutes from 12 October 2021 show Council unanimously approving the Castle Meadow acquisition following a recommendation from its Finance Committee. The site was presented as a way to accelerate plans for Digital Nottingham, expand the Business School and create space for professional education and civic partnerships.

The 2021 minutes record that expanding the physical estate while other organisations were reducing theirs was not regarded as a significant risk. Finance Committee had considered the business case and the university’s finances were described as strong enough to afford the purchase.

By February 2023, Council was told condition surveys found the site in good condition, refurbishment costs were expected to match estimates and connected projects for the Business School and Computer Science would deliver positive returns. Members nevertheless asked that changes in risk since acquisition should be reflected in the business case.

In September 2024, Council papers recorded that the third phase of Castle Meadow had been paused and the planned Business School move was being reconsidered. The original case was to be reviewed. The subsequent £64.5 million impairment demonstrates how far expectations had changed.

This sequence warrants scrutiny of the forecasts, challenge and oversight behind the original purchase and later development. It does not demonstrate that any named Council member or executive acted improperly. In 2021 the vice-chancellor was Professor Shearer West; Professor Jane Norman became vice-chancellor in 2025. The original acquisition and today’s restructuring should not be attributed indiscriminately to the same leadership.

Which degrees are closing, and what happens to students?

Recruitment to 42 courses was suspended for 2026/27 under the original proposals. Suspension of new admissions and a decision permanently to close a course are not identical, and different historic reports have counted degree pathways and variants differently.

The October 2026 decision confirmed that degree-level provision in modern languages and music would end. The university said a university-wide Language Centre would continue to offer language modules, while selected music research and extracurricular activities would continue. These arrangements should not be mistaken for retaining the affected degree programmes.

Other proposed reductions were altered during consultation, including aspects of medicine, engineering, chemistry and pharmacy. It would be misleading to describe all 42 initially suspended courses as definitively abolished without checking the final decision for each one.

The university says students already studying affected programmes will be supported to complete their degrees through teach-out arrangements. The Students’ Union has raised concerns over the detail of those arrangements, choices for foundation students and the impact of restructuring on student support.

How have students been affected?

Strike action and a marking boycott disrupted some assessment arrangements in summer 2026. The university introduced contingency assessment rules permitting derived or part-for-whole marks where normal marking could not be completed. Students could choose whether to accept certain contingency outcomes, with those who rejected them potentially having to wait longer for formal results and degree awards.

The university also made available a special complaints route for students who believed industrial action caused significant disadvantage. The effect was not uniform across the institution: not all staff participated in industrial action, and the Students’ Union advised students to attend timetabled teaching unless notified otherwise.

What about the Nottingham New Theatre building?

The campus building controversy also includes Nottingham New Theatre on University Park, a separate site from Castle Meadow. The student-run theatre’s building has been closed since 2023 after it was deemed unsafe. Campaigners have reported water ingress, damage and mould, and say restoring it could cost around £2 million.

The university has acknowledged that the building became unsafe but has not accepted every assertion about the precise causes. It says alternative performance space and support have been provided and that restoring the old building has not been a sufficiently high investment priority given its finances. Alumni, including actors Ruth Wilson and Theo James, have supported the campaign to save the theatre.

That is a distinct maintenance and estate-prioritisation issue. It is not evidence that Castle Meadow’s buildings were all defective.

What happens next?

The immediate question is whether further negotiations following the 11 November strike suspension will avert compulsory redundancies. There are also unresolved questions about the precise final course portfolio, support for affected students and the financial outcome of any Castle Meadow sale.

For the university’s governing Council, a wider accountability question remains: how did a campus endorsed in 2021 as an affordable strategic opportunity and still expected in 2023 to support positive investment returns become an asset written down so dramatically two years later? The published minutes document decisions and changing expectations, but the detailed original business case, revised appraisals and alternatives considered are necessary for a complete answer.

The university attributes the need for change to long-term financial and higher education sector pressures. UCU argues that management’s strategic choices helped create or worsen the crisis and that compulsory redundancies can be avoided. Both positions deserve examination against financial evidence, rather than being treated as settled conclusions.

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