Last month, when the University of Nottingham sent out 2,700 letters to staff warning them that they were at risk of redundancy, one languages lecturer was doubly impacted.

The partner of Ewa Szypula, an assistant professor in French studies who has been at the university for 12 years, had also been served notice of possible redundancy.

“I’m trying to not let our child see how stressful it is,” Szypula told Times Higher Education. “It’s difficult to see redundancies as anything other than the end of this particular career.”

Szypula was one of hundreds of Nottingham staff who joined a rally at the university last month, calling for management to rethink its plans for 608 job cuts, which come on top of 350 professional service staff cuts that took place last year.

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Staff have now begun a two-month long strike and marking and assessment boycott, which threatens to derail many students’ hopes of graduating.

The university has argued that the cuts are needed to prevent it running out of money by 2031. Its plans, which include the shutting of 42 courses including music, languages and nursing, represent one of the largest transformation projects of any university in the country.

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“We know that change of this scale is not easy, and we do not underestimate what it means for many of our colleagues and students. We will be doing everything we can to support our people through the next few months,” a spokesperson said.

For one final-year PhD student, who asked not to be named, the impact of the redundancy letters was immediate: “I was getting messages from people going: ‘Are you on campus? I could use a hug’, because there were people crying in the corridors.”

“It’s just been pretty bleak to watch my career prospects go up in flames over the last couple of months,” they said.

The crisis has captured national attention and sparked concerns among local politicians about the potential impact on the city and wider region, where the university plays an oversized role.

“I am greatly concerned about the hollowing out of departments and the substantial damage these plans could inflict on livelihoods, student recruitment, research income, and the university’s reputation,” Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, told Times Higher Education.

As one of Nottingham’s largest employers, “cuts on this scale will be felt across the whole city, including by students whose education and opportunities will undoubtedly be affected”.

Whittome called on the government to “step up” and address the issue “before further damage is done to university staff, students and the areas that depend on these institutions”.

Physics professor Philip Moriarty was one of those who has applied for redundancy. “I've been here 32 years, it took less than 30 seconds to fill in the voluntary redundancy form,” he said. He will find out in September if he has been successful.

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Much of the concern has focused on Moriarty’s highly regarded department. A  to save physics at Nottingham – where staff numbers are set to be reduced by about a third – received 2,700 signatures, before it was then closed to symbolically mirror the number of staff at risk.

Signatories included former Nobel laureates, and Moriarty described how an unknown person from the department had printed off the messages of support from the petition and stuck them up across the building, including on the office of the pro vice-chancellor for science, which gave staff a much-needed morale boost.

But underlying this initial shock and heartache lies a building sense of anger from staff, with many believing they are being punished for wider failures. 

According to its most recent financial statements, the university reported a financial deficit of £85 million in 2024-25 – a significant deterioration on its £17 million deficit the year before.

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The accounts say the deficit was mostly driven by a £75 million “overstatement” of the value of various newly acquired campuses, which had subsequently been “written down”. 

In 2021 Nottingham acquired a site in the city centre known as Castle Meadow for £38 million from its previous occupant, HM Revenue and Customs, intending to turn it into a city centre campus. The building was listed in 2023, based on an application from the  prior to the university’s acquisition.

One staff member said this listed status had turned the project into a “money pit” because strict planning restrictions are placed on listed buildings, meaning the university has been limited in its renovations.

When Times Higher Education visited the site, the campus was empty. The Central Building, which had been due to be open to students in , was shut, with makeshift “closed” signs covering the entrance.

The university spent a further £45 million on the campus – bringing its total spend to more than £80 million – before announcing last year that it was seeking to sell it off at a significant loss, after being revalued at £14 million.

Staff have also raised concerns over an IT revamp initiated under former vice-chancellor Shearer West, which led to the university spending £16 million per year over five years against the originally planned budget of £17 million per year over three years.

A 2019 review into the process led by West, who now leads the University of Leeds, found that the plans had been “too ambitious and complicated”.  

“On behalf of the university, the vice-chancellor and university executive board collectively apologise to staff and students who experienced, and in some cases continue to experience, disruption resulting from the programme,” it says.

The university is currently in consultation with unions over the proposed cuts, and previously said it should have a clearer sense of the final scale of the cuts in the autumn.

In the meantime, Susannah Lydon, course director of plant biology, a department in line for a 45 per cent reduction, said there was a sense of “desperation” from staff who are left questioning their future.

The situation at Nottingham, and higher education more widely, means it’s no longer about just having a “plan B”, but a “plan C and D”, said Lydon, who has been at Nottingham for almost 20 years.

“It just feels like everything’s unravelling really, and we’re all thinking, ‘OK, if this falls apart, then staying in higher education is probably not realistic’.”

The university spokesperson said that “doing nothing is not an option” and it was “vital that we respond to the changing sector demands to ensure we are sustainable for future generations and continue to deliver world leading teaching and research and an excellent student experience”.

“Nothing will be finalised or implemented unless a final business case is approved by Council in the autumn. During this period, we are encouraging feedback and alternative proposals from any colleagues, and these will be considered as part of the process.”

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juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com