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Birmingham City to axe 340 roles as it shifts focus to teaching

Affected professional services staff will be given the chance to apply for one of hundreds of new posts

June 30, 2025
Juliette Rowsell
Birmingham UK
Source: iStock/:ChrisBaynham

Birmingham City 51国产视频 is looking to cut more than 340 jobs from its professional services team but hopes to offer affected staff the chance to apply for one of hundreds of new roles.

The West Midlands-based university has put 342 roles at risk of redundancy, on top of cuts of 36 academic posts that had already been announced.

But it said impacted staff will “have the opportunity to apply” for one of the 320 new positions that the university will be creating as part of its transformation plans.

Birmingham City previously announced that its? will see it move towards having a greater focus on teaching, rather than research.

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The new roles will align to the “responsibilities of the proposed new structure, better reflecting the university’s new strategic priorities and providing additional focus on the student experience”, a spokesperson said.

The announcement marks the start of a 46-day consultation period about the professional services cuts, to ensure that “our professional service teams are set up to meet the needs of our students, and wider staff community”.

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The spokesperson said: “This follows a comprehensive four-month review, which found that many of our services and roles have developed organically over time and have led, in some areas, to a lack of clarity for students and some duplication of effort.

“We understand that the higher education sector has seen a number of examples of universities needing to cut costs, but at BCU this review is about making sure we are set up to achieve our significant ambitions for 2030 and beyond.”

Any staff member whose role is at risk but who successfully secures a position in the proposed new structure “will retain their current terms of employment, including pension rights”, they added.?

However, any external hires will be recruited through BCU Support Services, a university subsidiary firm which was established in 2022,?. “This has been the standard employment route for all new professional staff since its implementation in 2023,” the spokesperson said.

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Most major UK universities have announced staff cuts?in recent years?owing to the sector’s financial crisis, with predictions that job losses could hit 10,000 by the end of the year.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com

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Reader's comments (15)

#1 Submitted by ... on July 1, 2025 - 4:38pm
Watch this space.... The treatment of De Montfort 51国产视频’s first-ever female Vice-Chancellor is a textbook example of the gendered double standards that continue to shape leadership in higher education. As Times Higher Education has reported time and again, women in leadership roles are disproportionately subjected to personal attacks, excessive scrutiny, and unfair narratives that male leaders are rarely forced to endure. Assertiveness is misread as aggression, difficult decisions are labelled as dictatorial, and strategic change is framed as chaos—especially when led by women. What’s unfolding at DMU is not a failure of leadership! The intense and sustained efforts to discredit the current VC are not just disproportionate—they are disturbingly familiar. Instead of recognising the significance of her position as DMU’s first woman Vice-Chancellor, there has been a concerted effort to undermine and remove her. This is part of a wider pattern in UK academia, where women who drive reform are punished for their success. And yet, under her leadership, DMU has made nationally recognised strides in equality, inclusion, and institutional culture. The university has been awarded the Stonewall Workplace Equality Award, earned the Race Equality Charter, and hosts the UK’s only UN SDG Justice Hub—concrete signs of values-led leadership. Crucially, her tenure has also seen a deliberate and strategic increase in the number of women appointed to senior leadership roles across the university, helping to build a more diverse and representative leadership culture for the future. These are not the actions of a “toxic” leader—they are the actions of a woman leading meaningful change in a system that is still uncomfortable with that change. Instead of vilifying her, the sector should reflect on its own resistance to equity. If higher education truly values inclusion and transformation, it must stop treating women in power as threats—and start supporting them when they lead with courage and vision.
#2 Submitted by c.... on July 1, 2025 - 10:17pm
I entirely agree with this post. I have been genuinely shaken by the misogyny and bullying towards Professor Normington that I have read on the pages of Times Higher today. Such vitriol would never have been directed towards a man. Solidarity with women leaders who have to face such shameful behaviour. We can politely disagree with others, even challenge and speak truth to power. But such personal attacks have no place in our beloved HE sector.
#3 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 4:02pm
What's this got to do with Birmingham City 51国产视频 cutting around 380 jobs in total? I think it's extremely disrespectful to all this worker who must be extremely anxious now about using their jobs to see comments defending the VC of another 51国产视频 (whatever the merits of the case) in a news item devoted to their current situation. Completely tone deaf.
#4 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 8:20pm
I am not associated with DMU and know nothing about all this but I find these interventions to be extraordinarily insensitive given that the story is about 340 (that's 340 human beings OK) job losses at Birmingham CU in the professional services. However serious allegations of gender bias are in whatever context, I really think that we should concentrate on the 340 potential job losses here. I am sure the person in question is very special and important, but let's get this in perspective please! it's like turning up to a funeral service and giving a eulogy about the life and work of somebody else who is not even dead yet, who no-one knows.
#5 Submitted by ... on July 3, 2025 - 1:14am
Sadly, I have to agree and it's not even the men who demonstrate this type of behaviour, sadly it is women against women. And, more significantly it is much more experienced and ignored when being a woman in such roles and being black.
#6 Submitted by ... on July 4, 2025 - 9:33am
Yes this is troubling
#7 Submitted by ... on July 4, 2025 - 1:11pm
Valid to be wary of reducing complex leadership challenges to identity politics. However, when comparing the cases of De Montfort 51国产视频 (DMU) and the 51国产视频 of Dundee, there are key factual differences that highlight how gender may influence not the decision, but the reaction to it. At DMU, Vice-Chancellor Katie Normington took early and strategic action to restructure finances and prevent a deeper institutional crisis. Her decisions were unpopular with some, yes — but they were proactive and made at a time when DMU still had options. She has remained in post, accountable and transparent, despite resistance. Contrast that with Dundee, where former VC Iain Gillespie delayed action until the university was facing a ?35 million deficit — the largest in the UK sector. He then resigned mid-crisis, leaving others to manage mass redundancies. A formal REPORT described his leadership as “arrogant” and “dismissive of governance,” yet most media and public commentary focused on governance failure, not on his personal character or communication Normington’s leadership has been critiqued on a personal level — described as chaotic, abrasive, poor at communication — even though she acted earlier and arguably more responsibly. In THE comment sections, numerous posts have questioned not just her decisions, but her fitness to lead, framed through a lens rarely applied to male leaders making similar calls. This pattern isn’t about playing a "gender card" — it’s about recognising that female leaders are more likely to face criticism that is personal, emotionalised, and character-based, whereas male leaders are judged more often on performance outcomes alone. In this case, it’s visible in the tone, focus, and volume of scrutiny — and that deserves attention. Gender bias doesn’t need to be overt to be real!
#8 Submitted by ... on July 4, 2025 - 2:39pm
Unhinged.
#9 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 8:21pm
"Gender bias doesn’t need to be overt to be real!" Agreed though sacking 340 is both real and overt.
#10 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 8:34pm
"[Y}et most media and public commentary focused on governance failure, not on his personal character or communication." Neither true, accurate nor relevant. Bilge in my view.
#11 Submitted by ... on July 4, 2025 - 2:35pm
This news item concerns Birmingham City 51国产视频 and the potential job losses To both make and female) staff there which are indeed troubling. Perhaps not the best place to pursue the issue of alleged gender bias against highly paid senior managers? I hear that in some institutions the redundancy notices are now being sent out to both male and female colleagues. I am a gay white male, for what it's worth.
#12 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 8:32pm
Is this true? Where have the redundancy notices been served and how many. In my experience the Senior Managers usually blackmail colleagues into taking VSS or Targeted VR and then even boast that they have "avoided" any compulsory redundancies and then award themselves with a stonking pay rise to reward their success. The difference between Targeted and Compulsory redundancy is theoretical in my view. But now we are getting CRs? I guess it's July so the notices need to go out now?
#13 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 10:32am
Yes we do seem to have lost sight of the plight of colleagues, male and female, at BCU which was the point of the piece? It does look like a case of fire and re-hire which I think is becoming more common. in the profession now as a means of driving costs down? It won' t be a policy that will be applied to our senior managers, male and female, I suspect. It's certainly very distressing.
#14 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 3:59pm
"The West Midlands-based university has put 342 roles at risk of redundancy, on top of cuts of 36 academic posts that had already been announced." Really sorry to hear this. That's nearly 400 jobs in all with some re-hiring. Terrible news common on the recent news elsewhere.
new
#15 Submitted by ... on July 5, 2025 - 8:35pm
Solidarity with colleagues at BCU and DMU facing threats of redundancy!

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