If your uni has to make savings and you were in charge, where would you make cuts?

Imagine you're in charge of your uni and have to reduce costs. In which areas would you look to make savings?

Which would you make cuts to first?

Teaching
Research
Student union
General facilities
Student support services
Reduced staffing
Sport

We’re doing some quick research to find out whether students are satisfied with the teaching quality at university and if you think you're getting your moneys worth!

If you're at uni we'd love to hear from you, all respondents will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 5 x £20 Amazon vouchers as a thank you :h:

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(edited 8 years ago)

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Reply 1

claireestelle

Original post by MarleyZ

If your university has to make cost savings over the next three years, from which areas do you think savings should be found?

Which would you make cuts to first?

Teaching
Research
Student union
General facilities
Student support services
Reduced staffing
Sport

We’re doing some quick research to find out whether students are satisfied with the teaching quality at university and if you think you're getting your moneys worth!

If you're at uni we'd love to hear from you, all respondents will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 5 x £20 Amazon vouchers as a thank you :h:

Take the short survey now

My uni had a free gym membership for all, so i would have got rid of that.

Reply 2

hezzlington

I'd cut arts and humanities.

Spoiler

Reply 3

hezzlington

Original post by claireestelle

My uni had a free gym membership for all, so i would have got rid of that.

Ah that's horrible! it must be terribly busy

Reply 4

Tanqueray91

Definitely reduce money spent on sports! (Not that I imagine they spend that much on it anyway...)

Uni gives almost **** all to SU compared to other unis, and so definitely wouldn't want to cut that spending any further.

Reply 5

hezzlington

Original post by mobbsy91

What why sports? It's the best thing about uni :frown:

Reply 6

claireestelle

Original post by hezzlington

Ah that's horrible! it must be terribly busy

It was pretty busy, they all had free classes on so it must have been costing them a lot.

Reply 7

Tanqueray91

Original post by hezzlington

What why sports? It's the best thing about uni :frown:

Haha, because it's not that important imo for a university to be spending money on (except course related sports stuff...)

Reply 8

BaronK

Original post by mobbsy91

Haha, because it's not that important imo for a university to be spending money on (except course related sports stuff...)

Must go to a **** uni at sports

Reply 9

hezzlington

Original post by mobbsy91

Haha, because it's not that important imo for a university to be spending money on (except course related sports stuff...)

Enrichment!

Some sporting traditions go back a long way such as the Oxford/Cambridge boat race.

Students get sports scholarships that give financial aid to high achievers.

It's really important in my opinion.

Reply 10

Kevin De Bruyne

All of those things were pretty important so I didn't really know how to rank them :tongue:

Reply 11

domonict

Google PAS and Reading University.

They have spent £8 million on pwc consultants, set aside £30 million for costs and are sacking or downgrading nearly all the admin services and technical services. They have sacked people like the only glass blowers, and aim to centralise all admin, removing departmental contact.

At the same time, vast increases in salary for the senior staff who never see a student, and building overseas campus and massive sales of land for housing.

The students are seen only as revenue not the core business

Reply 12

Tanqueray91

Original post by BaronK

Must go to a **** uni at sports

No idea because I'm not involved in the sports stuff of it at all...

Original post by hezzlington

Haha, I don't really give a **** about tradition xD

I wouldn't put sports scholarships under the sports section of spending though... I'd have that under teaching or student support services rather than sport... as I would any sport related costs which were to do with courses.

Reply 13

Absorbaloff

I believe a lot of the money universities receive they use wisely. I would sell off old books and start renting out rooms to businesses and the public. Possibly cut out sports and societies that don't have enough members etc

Reply 14

BaronK

Original post by mobbsy91

No idea because I'm not involved in the sports stuff of it at all...

Haha, I don't really give a **** about tradition xD

I wouldn't put sports scholarships under the sports section of spending though... I'd have that under teaching or student support services rather than sport... as I would any sport related costs which were to do with courses.

What uni is it? Solent?

Reply 15

Tanqueray91

Original post by BaronK

What uni is it? Solent?

Haha, nope!

Reply 16

Absorbaloff

Original post by BaronK

Must go to a **** uni at sports

I have no interest in sports, but I understand how it's important for others. My old uni has a rich tradition of sports, but my own faculty was underfunded with a lack of lecturers and resources, also we weren't allowed to play contact sports so I guess if sports were cut it wouldn't hurt my soul.

Reply 17

Thisguy11

useless art (not the study but some things that are bought #durham)

Reply 18

Rakas21

Original post by MarleyZ

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Sport/extracurriculars and the contribution to the SU should be scaled back to the advise services.

Reduced staffing is a possibility via increasing the number of self service offerings on things like food and some library services (binding), especially where competition exists.

Original post by hezzlington

Oxford has revenues of about £3bn per year from patents, Cambridge is the 4th largest land owner in the country. These are not universities which need to make cuts and one of them famously said that they could educate all their students for free if they wished.