The University of Edinburgh has paid external consultants approximately £200,000 to run a cost-cutting exercise at its largest college, The Herald understands.
According to sources who have spoken to The Herald, staff from PA Consulting, the group helping facilitate an "academic size and shape" exercise at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), the largest of Edinburgh's three colleges, alerted university employees to the likelihood of job cuts as a result of the university's efforts to cut more than £140 million from its total budget.
Multiple sources at the university put the fee for PA Consulting at approximately £200,000, with several describing the figure as common knowledge on campus.
A university employee with direct knowledge of a March meeting with management and PA Consulting said that staff were told to expect job losses. Sources said that the CAHSS workshops involved senior figures and subject leads from the college and that the workshops were expected to conclude their initial stage by the end of March.
PA Consulting declined to comment on the engagement, referring questions to the university. A spokesperson for the university neither confirmed nor denied the contract cost or the scope of the workshops when asked directly.
In response to questions from The Herald, a university spokesperson said that decisions on future strategy "remain the responsibility of the University" and that the process "is being managed in close consultation with staff and overseen through established governance processes".
Although staff sources have said that similar workshops are being conducted at the university's other colleges (Science and Engineering and Medicine and Veterinary Medicine), The Herald understands that consultancy work is only being done at CAHSS.
Sophia Woodman, president of the Edinburgh University and College Union (UCU) branch, said: "The union strenuously objects to money being spent on high-priced management consultants at a time when budgets are being cut so severely that there are not sufficient staff to support research proposals, and in some areas budgets have been cut so substantially that PhD students no longer have any opportunities to learn and practice the teaching which is a crucial part of their professional development."
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Staff sources and union representatives raised separate concerns about a lack of transparency regarding the data framework used to assess programmes and make decisions about potential downsizing or restructuring. The university did not answer questions about the framework for the size and shape workshops, or what targets individual schools or departments will be expected to meet.
A spokesperson for the University of Edinburgh said: "Like many universities across the UK, our current financial position is not sustainable. Addressing these significant funding pressures now is the responsible approach to prevent greater challenges in the future.
“We are actively identifying ways to reduce our costs and improve how we work, while continuing to deliver world-leading research and teaching aligned with demand. Given the size and complexity of our organisation, it is appropriate to seek external support where required.
“We are providing staff and students with regular updates and opportunities to ask questions as we navigate this period, as we understand the uncertainty it has created. It remains our position that we will seek to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible."
Edinburgh University is working to reduce its annual budget by £140m, and the UCU has estimated this will put roughly 1,800 jobs at risk. The university's consistent position has been that, while it is not currently facing a deficit, it is making cuts to prevent a predicted deficit in the years to come.
The review comes as staff went on strike this week, and UCU Scotland announced a fresh mandate for further industrial action.
In announcing the new mandate, UCU Scotland representatives described a climate at the university which echoes the picture painted by CAHSS staff, including concerns about closed-door costing exercises, "hidden redundancies" — typically the nonrenewal of fixed contracts — and the university management's reluctance to categorically rule out compulsory redundancies.
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