Aberdeen University could cut less popular courses

The University of Aberdeen has announced plans to change the courses it offers, with less popular subjects facing possible cuts under a savings plan.

Last month, the university said the savings would include stopping almost all staff recruitment and revisiting voluntary redundancies.

The university has now said it expects to see a "small reduction" in the overall size of its workforce, and will look into changing its range of degrees.

It is aiming to address a £5.5m budget gap. In a separate update to staff it said some courses had five or fewer students.

Aberdeen is one of a number of Scottish universities looking at ways of cutting back on spending in response to financial pressures.

In a statement it said: "It's a challenging time for the UK higher education sector and the university is addressing a £5.5m budget gap which equates to around 2% of our total revenue.

"We are considering ways to more effectively shape and enhance our educational portfolio to create a more student demand-led, academically sustainable portfolio of degree programmes."

The statement added: "As part of this a voluntary severance and enhanced retirement scheme will also be offered to academic staff in a sub-set of our disciplines.

"Depending on the take-up of the scheme we expect this would see a small reduction in the overall size of our total workforce."

The University of Aberdeen's Students' Union (Ausa) expressed concern at the announcement.

Miles Rothoerl, Ausa vice president for education, said: "Students are already feeling the impact on their experience, and without urgent action things will continue to deteriorate.

"The university funding system is broken."

The Scottish government said that, along with Scottish Funding Council, it would continue to engage closely with the sector as universities - including Aberdeen - "develop their plans to address financial sustainability".

The University and College Union (UCU) said staff were concerned they had not been appropriately consulted on proposals for voluntary severance and job losses.

Scotland official Mary Senior said: "It is an extremely worrying time for staff at the university, especially those in the areas targeted for voluntary severance.

"If the university is supposed to be pulling together as a community, workers are asking why the burden of job losses are falling disproportionately on a small number of academic schools."

The University of Aberdeen's future was described as being in "significant doubt" in its annual report in May last year.

Uncertainties such as rising costs and falling numbers of international students were highlighted, and it warned a "material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt over the ability to continue as a going concern".

However, the university said the report was setting out the potential risk if action was not taken, and that it was now on a firm financial footing.

About 350 staff at the University of Edinburgh have accepted voluntary redundancy as part of a cost-saving effort.

In a letter to staff last month, principal Sir Peter Mathieson also confirmed academic promotions would be frozen for the 2025-26 period.

The university has claimed it needs to reduce costs by about £140m, but unions have called it a "manufactured crisis".

A ballot asking whether staff would consider going on strike is running until 20 May.

The University of Dundee is battling to tackle a £35m deficit and previously announced warned 700 jobs could go - although this has now been scaled back to about 300.

And lecturers at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen have been striking over redundancies.