Keele University is in discussions with its 2,000-plus employees over voluntary redundancies as it looks to cut costs.
The University says it will soon be opening a voluntary severance scheme and will consider all applications on a case-by-case basis from its 2,300 staff.
It has not said how many jobs it may be looking to shed at this stage – or how much money it needs to save.
The challenging financial pressures facing the UK higher education sector and a volatile international recruitment market are being blamed.
Keele says despite steps it has previously taken to mitigate these challenges, it must put itself in the best possible position for the future.
It says any decisions taken will be made to avoid impacting students.
Daily Focus understands that messages setting out the university’s position have been sent out to all academic and support staff this week ahead of the roll out of the scheme.
In a statement confirming the situation, a spokesman for Keele University said: “The UK higher education sector is facing a range of challenging financial pressures, with frozen tuition fees, high inflation and a volatile international recruitment market.
“We have taken successful steps to mitigate these challenges over the last few years, but as with all UK universities we need to put ourselves in the best possible position for the future so that we can continue to deliver our charitable purpose of delivering education and research that makes the world a better place.
“As such, we will soon be opening a voluntary severance scheme as a cost-saving initiative, and all applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis so that there is no impact on the student experience.”
The challenge facing the higher education sector both domestically and internationally has impacted both of the area’s universities.
Last year, Daily Focus reported that Staffordshire University was shedding around 100 jobs – with increased wages, lack of uptake on some courses and other rising costs to blame.
And earlier this year both Keele Vice-Chancellor Professor Trevor McMillan and his Staffordshire University counterpart Professor Martin Jones told Daily Focus that the next government must make it an absolute priority to review higher education funding.
A new report by the Office for Students says that universities in England could face closure with 40 per cent facing budget deficits.
The report concludes that increasing numbers will need to make significant changes to their funding model.
Keele, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, has around 13,500 students and is home to a number of diverse businesses in a series of innovation centres on its campus.
Seriously!. They have systematically steered Keele away from providing good quality education to questionable development on grade 2 and 3 food producing land. They built an oversized hotel created other business units unrelated to education and they still can’t make ends meet. What’s going on?