UK funding crisis forces three more universities to cut jobs

Its quite clear the sector is facing challenges that have not been seen in decades. Really essential that all involved remember this and realise that they actually need to work together to help create something that is sustainable for the future. There are very few universities that are not going to be affected by this. Even the small number with significant financial surpluses will need to change to respond. The next couple of years are going to be rocky.

We need to seriously think of getting rid of bureaucratic bloat - useless senior management teams and their underlings. Also reduce all ridiculous amount of bureaucratic controls and policies which achieve little to nothing. So much money is just plain wasted.

“The academic tutor role is a new entry-level position for those looking to begin their academic careers, and similar roles are used successfully in other universities,” - define successfully. Academic tutors are disposable university stress dumps. Universities are able to successfully use such roles to directly dump excess stress relieving permanent staff members of such stress when required because it is more difficult for the university to avoid deal with work related stress - a new health and safety obligation. If at any point the ‘temporary’ staff member stops coping with the unregulated work-related stress that they are exposed to in such a position the university will clear that person out as if they are ‘human trash’. If you value your health don’t become a stress dump in academia because universities will pass all the external pressure they are under directly on to you and they will not care if your health suffers as a consequence.

The reference to 'Grade 9 of the national pay scale' is misleading. The national pay scale doesn't have grades. It has spine points. Different universities divide that up into grades in different ways. Why does this matter? Because Hallam's 'Grade 6' is equivalent to 'Grade 5' at many pre-1992 universities. At my university (and, I suspect, most Russell Group universities) that puts it below the lowest entry grade for academic contracts - it's only used for technicians and junior administrative staff. This is a pretty major change in the terms and conditions of academic staff, and it's not at all obvious from the article. It would be helpful if future articles on pay could specify spine points, rather than just grades.