Edinburgh University lecturers begin five-week strike over cuts

Lecturers at the University of Edinburgh have begun a five-week strike as part of a long-running dispute over budget cuts and compulsory redundancies.

Members of the University and Colleges union (UCU) will stop work until 30 October.

The union said the cuts could lead to 1,800 job losses, and hundreds of staff had already lost work when contracts were not renewed. The university announced the closure of 90 courses earlier this month.

Principal Prof Sir Peter Mathieson accused the union of "weaponising" students and insisted the university had to take difficult decisions to secure its future.

The dispute stems from £140m of cuts announced by the university last year.

The UCU described the programme of cost reduction as "unprecedented" in Scottish higher education.

It said the university's financial pressure was largely driven by its capital investment strategy and it should prioritise cuts to non-staff budgets.

The UCU said Prof Sir Peter Mathieson was paid more than £400,000 a year, and under his leadership the university had acquired more than £1bn of capital assets.

These include the Edinburgh Futures Institute, an "interdisciplinary hub" housed in the former Royal Infirmary building at Lauriston Place.

The union said the university "continues to pay in spiralling interest and depreciation" for the institute.

It added these decisions were made without accountability to the campus trade unions or the wider university community.

The union also said the university's Senate - the body responsible for overseeing academic governance and standards - was side-lined and a vote of no-confidence ignored during the process.

The National Union of Students (NUS) said it was supporting the UCU.

Scotland president Justine Pédussel said: "The national student movement stands in solidarity with all tertiary education staff currently striking or taking industrial action across Scotland.

"Students only thrive when staff have secure, well-paid positions.

"Any temporary disruption is a small price to pay for a more secure future for education."

Prof Mathieson said the university was "extremely disappointed" by the decision to strike.

He told the BBC's Radio Scotland Breakfast programme: "I have enormous sympathy with our students and it really irritates me that they are being weaponised in the way that they are by UCU.

"And UCE know that they are targeting students. Of course they can say that they think students are on their side because, I was a student once and we were all anti-establishment, and of course you're going to blame the establishment.

"But the fact is that the situation in the university is not sustainable and we have to do something about it.

"Otherwise future generations of students - whether they are Scottish, English or international - won't be able to benefit if the university is not in a financially resilient and sustainable state."

The principal said the decisions the university were taking would maintain its "position as a world-class institution with a vital role in Scotland's economic and civic life".

The strike comes just a week after lecture staff at the University of Dundee started five weeks of strike action over compulsory redundancies.