Lecturers at one of Britain's newest universities may be about to go on strike, amid a row over the manner in which 64 staff have been made redundant as part of a financial rescue plan for the University of Luton.
The strike action, which was voted for unanimously during a heated meeting of members of the lecturers' union Natfhe, is being threatened after the troubled institution announced the series of job cuts to fill the gap in funds left by falling student numbers.
Natfhe today told the Guardian that it intended to take legal action over the job losses, accusing the university of failing to properly involve them in the redundancies and describing the situation as "the straw that broke the camel's back."
The redundancies, described today by Luton vice chancellor, Les Ebdon, as "symptomatic of a chronically under funded sector", are the latest in a string of job losses which has seen the institution's staff fall from 1,400 to 950 in recent years.
In 2001 the institution announced it was embarking on a £4m cost-cutting exercise after it was revealed it had suffered the largest shortfall of student numbers nationally, missing the government's target by some 4,500 students over four years.
Speaking this afternoon as Natfhe officials organised an official ballot of its members over strike action, Professor Ebdon denied that the university had broken the rules on redundancies. "We have acted entirely properly and entirely legally throughout this period. To date we have had no formal notification of legal action from the union, and I don't expect to receive one," he said.
Sixty-four members of Luton's staff, including 22 academics, were encouraged to apply for voluntary redundancy from January 31. And an announcement this week that a further 34 jobs may be lost has raised concerns about the sustainability of the institution - a university since 1993.
"What's most worrying is that this latest batch of losses comes on the back of year-on-year job losses," said Natfhe regional officer Jenny Golden. "On top of that, we're also told that the number of students has fallen from 8,000 a few years ago to 4,500. We really have to look at whether the University of Luton is sustainable."
"From our point of view the situation is dire. Staff morale is at rock bottom, and a meeting we held there yesterday was standing room only, with staff voting unanimously for strike action." Denying that the long term future of the university was under threat, Prof Ebdon admitted that the redundancies were a necessary step to save the university's finances, and highlighted the funding crisis facing institutions like Luton.
"If we hadn't take this action, which of course we did very reluctantly, then the University of Luton would not have had a long term future," said Prof Ebdon. "But I'm confident that we've done enough to secure the university's future and to get us back on track. What this does show is that institutions which honour the government's plans to widen access really struggle for it."
"At the moment over 50% of our students are from the poorest backgrounds, and over 90% from state schools. This is why the higher education bill is so important to us, and why we ideally would like to see a national bursary system in place. Our problems are very real, as you can see. We're not crying wolf here."
This morning Natfhe accepted that the university - which appears towards the bottom of most university league tables - had genuine financial problems as a result of its commitment to uphold the government's aims for widening participation, but said that the institution's legal commitment to its staff remained.
"This is not the first time that we have been brought in to mediate between academics and the management in Luton, and for that reason we will pursue this case against the manner in which the university has conducted these job losses," said Natfhe's universities spokesman, Roger Kline.
"What we have is a situation of no confidence in senior managers, issues of the senior managers' accountability to the governors, and apparent financial irregularities. The strength of feeling behind the strike action is immense, and it is likely that we will see a series of rolling strikes commencing in mid-February," he said.
