Editing Cardiff University (section)

=== 2025 cost-cutting measures ===
Cardiff University announced in January 2025 that it had an operating deficit of £31.2 million for 2023–24 and announced a three-month consultation on plans to reduce its academic workforce by approximately 400 full-time equivalent positions, representing around 7 per cent of its total staff, as well as discontinuing programs in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology, and merging other academic departments.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Securing our Academic Future |date=28 January 2025|url=https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2894086-securing-our-academic-future |access-date=31 January 2025|website=Cardiff University |language=en}}</ref> The Arts and Humanities are expected to suffer most severely, with the remaining workforce to be reduced by approximately 120 full-time equivalent positions, which is around half. The university had around £500 million in unrestricted reserves according to its accounts for 2023–24, which the [[Universities and Colleges Union]] said should be partially used to give a longer period for the university's finances to recover. However, the university said that "unrestricted reserves" was not the same as cash available to spend.<ref>{{Cite web|title=University imposing massive job cuts and School closures has £0.5bn in unrestricted reserves|url=https://nation.cymru/news/university-imposing-massive-job-cuts-and-school-closures-has-0-5bn-in-unrestricted-reserves|website=Nation.Cymru|author=Martin Shipton|date=29 January 2025|access-date=5 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clye3gnk15go|title=Use £500m reserves to avoid uni job cuts, union says|date=31 January 2025|author1=Gwyn Loader|author2=Iolo Cheung|work=BBC News}}</ref> The university's accounts contain the statement that "Of the University’s £426m of cash and investments as at 31 July 2024, £41m is freely available to spend."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/2894974/CU_AnnualReport2024_Final.pdf|page=25|title=Annual Report and Financial Statements Year Ended 31 July 2024|publisher=Cardiff University|access-date=13 February 2025}}</ref> A document circulated internally but leaked to the press revealed that further job losses in non-academic staff were expected on top of the 400 academic staff posts and outlined plans for a smaller but higher-quality student intake in future. It also revealed that the projected deficit for 2024–25, if no action was taken, was £65 million, double the deficit for 2023–24, with the cuts designed to reduce the deficit to £28 million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/cardiff-university-raise-admission-grades-30955568|title=Young people warned about getting into Cardiff University in future|date=7 February 2025|work=Wales Online|author=Abbie Wightwick}}</ref>

In May, the university announced that it would reduce the impact of its cuts by continuing to offer some courses that were previously due to be cancelled, including Nursing, Music, and Modern Languages.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-28 |title=Cardiff University U-turns on module closures – THE TIDE |url=https://thetide.org.uk/2025/05/28/cardiff-university-u-turns-on-module-closures/ |access-date=2025-05-28 |language=en-US}}</ref> The university also agreed to not make any compulsory redundancies in 2025, following a deal with the UCU to drop plans industrial action in the summer.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-27 |title=Cardiff University backtracks on plans to cut music and languages |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6rn8n7231o |access-date=2025-05-28 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

The university's deficit is part of the wider financial challenges in the UK higher education sector, where universities are facing budget deficits due to factors such as tuition fee caps, rising operational costs, and fluctuations in student enrolment. Other institutions, have also announced staff reductions and course closures.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 March 2024 |title=UK HE shrinking |url=https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/#current-redundancy-programmes |access-date=31 January 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/feb/01/quarter-of-leading-uk-universities-cutting-staff-due-to-budget-shortfalls|title=Quarter of leading UK universities cutting staff due to budget shortfalls|work=The Guardian| author=Richard Adams |date= 1 February 2025}}</ref> The proposed cuts at Cardiff also led to protests at the [[Senedd]], where the [[Welsh Government]] said that there was no more money available for higher education despite universities across Wales suffering financial crises and implementing job cuts and campus closures.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7gjmvg412o|title=Protesters call on Senedd to help save uni jobs|date=4 February 2025|author1=Bethan Lewis|author2=Antonia Matthews|work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/welsh-universities-urgent-funding-warning-30924807|title='Urgent' warning as Welsh universities face £70m black hole amid 'worst financial difficulties in recent memory'|author=Abbie Wightwick|date=3 February 2025|work=Wales Online}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78x4l9lk43o|title=University education at Wales' oldest campus ends|date=23 January 2025|author=Bruce Sinclair|work=BBC News}}</ref>