A SCOTTISH university has announced it is cutting jobs in a bid to plug a £11.2m financial black hole.
Aberdeen University is considering voluntary redundancies, pausing recruitment and freezing staff promotions, STV News reports.
The university expects to have a deficit of £6.5m this current financial year, however spending is forecast to climb by at least £4.7m.
While the university is yet to lay out its savings plan, staff were told on Thursday that the university needs to take "immediate steps" to address rising costs of at least £4.7m, caused by a rise in National Insurance contributions, last year's pay award and inflationary pressures.
Cost-cutting measures will include stopping almost all staff recruitment, voluntary redundancies and pausing promotions.
An Aberdeen University spokesperson said: “We’ve made good progress on stabilising and improving our financial position by managing our costs, setting tough savings targets, and pausing recruitment for many roles.
“We now need to make further savings as costs for 2025/26 are set to climb by at least £4.7m due to higher National Insurance contributions, last year’s pay award, the payment of increments and inflationary pressures across a wide range of areas.
“We are taking early action to bring costs down and this includes stopping almost all staff recruitment, revisiting Voluntary Severance and Enhanced Retirement for previously declined applications and pausing the academic promotion exercise.
“The steps are regrettable but necessary to help us offset some of our rising costs and continue to navigate unprecedented times for our sector.”
Trade union University and College Union (UCU) previously said its Aberdeen members were already being forced to work beyond their contractual hours and had expressed fears around their workload.
The announcement comes after a similar move was made at Dundee University last month in an effort to deal with a £35m deficit.
The job cuts at Dundee were initially expected to affect 632 people, but it has since been warned that around 700 people are at risk.
Earlier this week, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said university officials are "working at pace" to bring the number of proposed job losses down after the previous figure was "unpalatable" to ministers.
UCU has been contacted for comment.
