Queen’s University criticised over India campus after NI job cuts

Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) has been criticised for its decision to open a campus in India, after it announced 270 job cuts in Northern Ireland through a voluntary redundancy scheme.

The University and College Union (UCU), which represents many of QUB’s teaching staff, described the move as “scandalous”.

It said QUB receives “significant funding” from Stormont and accused the university of using public money to fund redundancies in Belfast while expanding abroad.

However Queen’s said it was facing a financial deficit amid a “sharp decline” in international students and so it had to take a number of actions to cut its costs. It added the redundancy scheme was wholly voluntary.

The 270 redundancies at its Belfast campus were announced in October.

It equates to more than 5% of the university’s workforce.

At the time, BBC News NI saw documents which suggested QUB was facing a deficit of more than £11m for the financial year 2024-25.

Then last week, the university announced that it plans to open a campus in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in India next year.

It said the move would “reinforce partnerships and opportunities for innovation with local industry, government and business sectors across India and Northern Ireland”.

Initially, the new campus will offer five postgraduate programmes which QUB said would be “tailored to the specific needs of the Indian economy”.

However, the UCU said Queen’s receives funding from Stormont’s Department for the Economy.

The union accused the university of “directing taxpayer money into axing jobs in Northern Ireland while creating them on foreign shores”.

“It is scandalous that QUB is putting massive amounts of money into a new campus halfway round the world all the while axing jobs in Belfast,” said UCU general secretary Jo Grady.

The union has described the planned redundancies as “brutal and unnecessary” and said it was “deeply concerned” about the workloads faced by the remaining staff.

It claimed the severance process “requires applicants to outline how their duties will be redistributed among remaining colleagues or otherwise suppressed”.

Katharine Clarke, from the UCU, said Queen’s was “prioritising expansion abroad rather than safeguarding jobs in Belfast”.

In its statement, QUB said it was reacting to the financial challenges “being faced right across the UK higher education sector”.

It explained that Northern Ireland universities “face an additional challenge” because of a cap on the number of “home students” it can admit.

QUB added that the income it received for teaching home students “does not cover the whole cost of teaching”, leaving it with a deficit.

In previous years, QUB balanced its books through the fees charges to international students, but there is now a “sharp decline” in those students coming to the UK.

Its interim vice-president Alistair Finlay said QUB had to be proactive to ensure it “operates in an effective, efficient and financially sustainable way”.

He said the redundancy scheme was designed to “provide an opportunity for eligible colleagues who may wish to explore new paths”.

“Staff can choose to apply or not, without any pressure or obligation,” he added.

The UCU said it had called and emergency general meeting on Thursday so its members can discuss the issue.