Edinburgh University lecturers begin five-week strike over cuts

Lecturers at the University of Edinburgh have begun a five-week strike as part of a long-running dispute over budget cuts and compulsory redundancies.

Members of the University and Colleges union (UCU) - including university staff and technicians - will not return to work until 30 October.

The union said the cuts could lead to 1,800 job losses, and hundreds of staff had already lost work when contracts were not renewed. The university announced the closure of 90 courses earlier this month.

Principal Prof Sir Peter Mathieson accused the union of "weaponising" students and insisted the university had to take difficult decisions to secure its future.

The dispute stems from £140m of cuts announced by the university last year.

The UCU described the programme of cost reduction as "unprecedented" in Scottish higher education.

It said the university's financial pressure was largely driven by its capital investment strategy and it should prioritise cuts to non-staff budgets.

The UCU said Prof Sir Peter Mathieson was paid more than £400,000 a year, and under his leadership the university had acquired more than £1bn of capital assets.

These include the Edinburgh Futures Institute, an "interdisciplinary hub" housed in the former Royal Infirmary building at Lauriston Place.

The union said the university "continues to pay in spiralling interest and depreciation" for the institute.

It added these decisions were made without accountability to the campus trade unions or the wider university community.

The union also said the university's Senate - the body responsible for overseeing academic governance and standards - was side-lined and a vote of no-confidence ignored during the process.

The UCU's co-president at Edinburgh University, Lena Wanggren, told BBC Scotland News it was the university management team which was damaging students' education by cutting staff and "refusing to negotiate meaningfully".

"I've worked at this university for 17 years and I don't take this (strike action) lightly.

"But I want to protect students' education not just for five weeks, but for the future. And the students are aware of that."

The National Union of Students (NUS) said it was supporting the UCU.

Scotland president Justine Pédussel said: "The national student movement stands in solidarity with all tertiary education staff currently striking or taking industrial action across Scotland.

"Students only thrive when staff have secure, well-paid positions.

"Any temporary disruption is a small price to pay for a more secure future for education."

English literature student Alice Suggett, 18, said she was "completely torn with the strikes" but she does empathise with the lecturers.

"My main concern is that I have an assessment in six weeks and I don't think adequate support is going to be given to me," she said.

"But I completely understand that this is necessary."

Jack Le-Men, who will be studying international relations, said five weeks of strikes "seems extreme".

The 19-year-old added: "Lots of people sympathise with the union's choice to go on strike.

"I think the problem is that most people feel that the students are being used as bargaining chips in this political conversation between the union and the university."

Prof Mathieson said the university was "extremely disappointed" by the decision to strike.

He told the BBC's Radio Scotland Breakfast programme: "I have enormous sympathy with our students and it really irritates me that they are being weaponised in the way that they are by UCU.

"And UCU know that they are targeting students. Of course they can say that they think students are on their side because, I was a student once and we were all anti-establishment, and of course you're going to blame the establishment.

"But the fact is that the situation in the university is not sustainable and we have to do something about it.

"Otherwise future generations of students - whether they are Scottish, English or international - won't be able to benefit if the university is not in a financially resilient and sustainable state."

The principal said the decisions the university were taking would maintain its "position as a world-class institution with a vital role in Scotland's economic and civic life".

The strike comes just a week after lecture staff at the University of Dundee started five weeks of strike action over compulsory redundancies.