Freddy Purcell-
By now, I am sure that most readers are aware of the devastating cuts that the University of Exeter has proposed to implement during the coming academic year. The University’s goal is to make 150 full-time lecturers redundant from a pool of 523. Members of the humanities faculty make up 85% of this pool. News of these huge cuts came as a surprise and has been deeply upsetting for many. Staff fear for their jobs and livelihoods while students worry about how the quality of their education will be affected as we stand to lose teachers who have supported us in our personal and academic lives. Both share a sense of injustice and a feeling that this decision from the upper echelons of the university will only make life worse for those learning and teaching here. Amongst all of this, it can be hard to know what to make of the situation and even harder to know what to do. I therefore wanted to write this article to serve as the clearest guide I can muster to navigate what will be a difficult path ahead.
Before getting to the decision made by the University of Exeter, it is essential to understand how higher education’s past informs its present struggles. A recent British Social Attitudes Survey found that a third of respondents felt a university education is not worth the time or money that it typically takes. This has risen from 14% in 2005. Contributing to this feeling is the ever-present sense that many students will be unable to pay their student debt and concern about the loss of graduate roles to AI. However, it is worth mentioning that despite the alarming nature of these figures, the majority of people still feel that university education is worth it. Indeed, Burn-Murdoch (2026) still finds that in 2022, graduates earned 45% more than non-graduates, although this does not account for student debt.
Outside of these employment prospects, universities offer the opportunity to meet new people with a vast range of different backgrounds and interests, expanding social horizons beyond what many have previously experienced. Fundamentally, universities are also educational institutions and provide their students the opportunity to follow their intellectual passions alongside like-minded individuals and guided by the experts in their fields. It is easy to view education in the balance of cost versus employment prospects, but for many, the social and intellectual life that university affords is invaluable. Even with the increase in negative perception, universities play profoundly formative role in the lives of many.
Despite the unerring value of higher education, the sector remains in deep financial difficulty. Over 20 years ago, Tony Blair called for half of young adults to enter higher education. The benefits of this policy theoretically included greater social mobility and meeting the demand for skills in the UK’s knowledge-based economy. However, this drive to get more students into universities was not supported by government funding for the sector. In fact, the government has consistently fallen short of its target to finance 80% of research at universities that experts deem is necessary to keep the sector afloat. With this lack of funding, the cap on tuition fees for domestic students was raised from £3,000 to £9,000 in 2012 and has been slowly increasing since. However, this increase is far from sufficient to meet the loss of income that universities face from inflation and other costs, meaning that institutions have increasingly relied on the much higher fees that international students are charged. This, however, has not saved 45% of UK higher education providers from the possibility of running a deficit for this academic year without serious government intervention.
Intervention is unlikely to come. As the negative view of higher education has increased, a rhetoric that the sector is bloated and needs to enter a period of hardship has developed. It may therefore be easy to think that the proposed changes at the University of Exeter are unfortunate, but necessary. Of course, it is impossible to ignore how higher education may not be as valuable to students as it once was or the sector’s economic troubles. However, the measures proposed by Vice-Chancellor Lisa Roberts and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Liz Jones are far from justified.
The University of Exeter maintains a strong financial position with cash reserves of £200 million. So instead of responding to the current state of the institution’s finances, the proposed measures are intended to safeguard the university’s future in anticipation of a challenging economic climate. In light of this economic situation, the vast scale of these cuts is completely unreasonable and of unprecedented brutality. They dwarf, for example, the 58 jobs cut at the University of Kent in 2024 that caused strikes. The reduction in academic staff means that fewer modules can run, reducing the variety of content on courses that makes the University of Exeter such an exciting place to study and increasing class sizes. This in turn piles more work onto lecturers who will be unable to offer the same detailed academic support to students. The quality of life of both students and lecturers will undoubtedly be affected for the worse if these cuts go through.
These proposals have also been pushed through with very little consultation and inordinate haste. As it stands, staff who do not take voluntary redundancy will find out whether they are being made redundant during the first term of next year, having to find employment before they are forced to leave at the end of the term. Such lack of care shows a complete disregard for the staff that make the University of Exeter such a wonderful institution.
Furthermore, cuts to staff are devastating to the humanities faculty where departments like Philosophy would be reduced by around 25%. This not only shows an obvious devaluing of these subjects that have inspired countless students to see the world differently and engage critically with a great spectrum of important issues, but would be irreparably damaging to the research and teaching culture of the university. Within the Philosophy department, I have seen how the close relationships between lecturers, graduates and undergraduates have spurred individuals on to further study and encouraged them to develop their ideas. This is what a university should do. It has made my university experience the wonderful thing it has been. I will be distraught if the next generation of students cannot experience the same and I am sure many of you feel similarly.
In times of adversity, hope is what fuels change. Just this year when the University of Exeter suddenly threatened to remove PTA positions, jeopardising the quality of teaching for students, PTAs protested and successfully retained their work. With similar actions, students and lecturers across the university can achieve similarly through a united front. If you want to make a difference, then there are numerous possible actions you can take.
- Sign this petition: https://www.change.org/p/stop-redundancies-at-the-university-of-exeter-706befbf-8195-4b87-a96c-13666e695878?recruiter=1346566168&recruited_by_id=be888b20-588c-11ef-b4b4-81afedf891d1&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=starter_onboarding_share_personal&utm_medium=copylink&share_id=yKcx6Zr29H
- Fill out the Guild’s feedback form to represent student voices over the coming months https://shorturl.at/O7YxO.
- Sign @studentsforthehumanitiesuoe’s open letter. You can include your personal feelings on the proposed cuts or a testimony about how an academic has made a difference in your studies. Sign it here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScE_2jUTi7A-cwrkwKtqRyPCFieInmoMY9htsOUf-nP4PVRzA/viewform
- You can send an email to Vice Chancellor Lisa Roberts. You can find a template for an email on a Guild email.
- Graduands can wear DefendExeterUni sashes and hot pink clothing under robes or makeup. You can also refuse to shake hands with Vice Chancellor Lisa Roberts when walking across stage.
- Importantly, you can spread the word. The more people that know about the cuts and are willing to fight them, the better!
The University of Exeter is its students and staff. We can and must shape its future.