Thurs 6th November
On 6th November 2025, your Union Executive Officers facilitated a platform for Student Leaders to meet directly with University Executives to discuss the proposed redundancies.
We opened the meeting by thanking Student Leaders for showing up to represent the student voice. As your Executive Officer team, we expressed our deep concern about the potential impact these proposals could have on students and the wider university community. We maintained that while we understand that some changes may be necessary, our priority remains ensuring transparency and amplifying your voices throughout this process.
We are now providing you with the recording from the conversation for your review and to keep you informed.
To reiterate our response to the ongoing situation, over the past three weeks, we have:
- Held daily internal meetings to track updates and plan responses.
- Released a feedback and question form to gather your concerns.
- Met with the University Executive Team, including the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Chief People Officer, and Chief Financial Officer, to understand the proposals and present the questions gathered from student feedback.
- Met with the UCU (University and College Union), which represents academic and professional staff, to hear their perspectives as well as the concerns they’ve received from students.
- Published the minutes from the meetings to maintain transparency and openness.
- Organised the Redundancy Forum open Q&A session with University Executives, where Student Leaders had the opportunity to ask questions directly.
- Finally, we are providing you with the recording from the Student Leaders Forum so you can stay informed and engaged as we move forward with the next steps.
Thank you for your cooperation and continued support during this challenging time.
Questions answered after the Forum
How long exactly have the University been aware that they [sic] needed to make these redundancies?
We have been open with staff about the financial challenges facing the University with rising costs and reduced income and we have been taking steps to address over a number of years. The decision to bring forward proposals to reduce stafff numbers has been taken during the summer of this year.
Has the University confirmed the proposed number of FTE roles to be made redundant per programme/discipline? Can this be published?
This information has been shared with relevant parties as part of collective and individual consultation but it would not be appropriate to publish more broadly.
Is there still a freeze on staff recruitment?
Vacancy control remains in place across the University subject to any business critical roles.
Does the University expect experienced staff to take a substantial reduction in pay to work at the university?
The proposals do not relate to staff taking a pay cut to undertake their roles.
How are you planning to run the apprenticeship courses post-redundancies, is it going to be face to face in the future or move online?
Current apprenticeship programmes will continue to run post-redundancies and where there is demand in the future. There are separate on campus and online apprenticeship provision.
What will the impact be on PhD students loosing [sic] their supervisors who are skilled in their specific area?
The University's commitment is to ensure that PhD students are in receipt of the appropriate specialist supervision.
Are there proposed changes to the Student Hub as part of redundancies?
No. Some staff who provide services that are accessed through the Hub are affected by the proposals but the services will continue with delivery proposed in more efficient ways. The intention over time is to grow the range of services that can be accessed through the Hub.
Is there a process at the University that manages over-resourcing as it arises within each College/School/Program [sic]/Department? Rather than leaving it to be addressed as part of a [sic] mandated redundancies, why didn't it flag potential issues ahead of time to be addressed?
Resourcing is reviewed as part of workforce planning in line with projected student numbers and other planned activity and income. A combination of increased costs and reduced income have meant that a normal process of redesignating resource is not sufficient and thus the redundancy proposals have come forward on this occasion.
Has there been any sort of impact assessment for the impact on the surrounding community in Derby and Derbyshire and not just the University? Can it be published?
The University has conducted an EIA and this has been shared as part of consultation. The University's staff and student base are both local, national and international and thus the University works closely with partners on establishing Industry need and as such the changes made already to the College structures and the introduction of new courses reflects the needs of local partners.
Could we be given a clear timeline for the process of the redundancy consultations as I know a lot of staff and students are confused as to when we will be informed of those that are leaving. Will it be immediately after the 45 days [sic] will we know certain things during the consultation?
A timeline for the proposals has been shared with affected staff on the SharePoint site. We will keep students updated with the information they need to know at the appropriate points in the process.
If a course is closed, as explained/defined in a student support plan through OFS, what happens if that student has to retake a module or a year - Some students have to retake year 3, would an extra year be held for such cases or would the student need to transfer universities?
When a programme is closed, the University's committment as per the Student Protection Plan is to ensure that all registered students are able to complete the degree as per the parameters of their registration.
Will any students loose [sic] their course, supervisor or support mid-degree?
Students will not lose their course or support mid-degree but it may be the case that supervisors/tutors could change.
Are there any changes to deadlines or assessment expectations given the redundancies?
At this point in time, there are no anticipated changes ot deadlines or assessment expectations.
Each lecturer’s unique expertise is crucial and not easily replaced. How can we be sure that losing them won’t lower the quality of the learning experience we’re investing in?
Whilst we acknowledge that students will value indiviudal lecturers, in reality staff move on for various reasons and as such we have processes in place to ensure students education is not negatively impacted by staff changes.
What happens to the teaching and contact time, and thus quality of their courses, for students with such vastly reduced staff?
The proposals have been subject to modelling and drafting to ensure that there will be no dimuition in the contact time and quality of teaching.
Regarding block teaching, there has been no student consultation to date, can we be reassured that this is not going to be enacted arbitrarily?
Consultation has been undertaken with student representatives via the Union of Students.
Are the University forecasting/planning for any additional redundancies?
We do not have any current plans of this nature. We are currently offering voluntary exit options, either through voluntary redundancy (for those affected by the current proposals) or voluntary severance (for staff not directly affected).
What are our rights as students who may feel that the University is not meeting the standards it had before the redundancy?
The University operates a thorougoing internal three-tier Student Complaints scheme with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) a fourth and final external stage.
Do you have an outline of which departments, courses and services are at risk of closing?
This information has been shared with relevant parties as part of collective and individual consultation but it would not be appropriate to publish more broadly.