What is happening at Leicester?

The University of Leicester told the world they are in financial trouble. Their cash reserves are shrinking and management are trying to find a way to put our institution on a firmer financial footing. The magic figure that management came up with is 11 million pounds in savings.

The University intends to make these savings by reducing staffing costs. Staffing is the largest part of the University’s expenditure, adding up to 56.6% of the total in 2023/24. Their goal is to reduce these costs to 53% of the total by 2030; to achieve this they are now targeting staff in the following Schools: Chemistry; Education; Film Studies; Geography, Geology and the Environment; History; and Modern Languages.

All of these departments have outstanding external reputations and in most cases a national ranking that is better than the university average!

Scroll down to see what is happening in each department.

↓

Affected Areas

Chemistry

The School of Chemistry at Leicester is currently ranked 2nd in the UK (Guardian League Table 2026), and consistently outperforms the university position. 100% of our research output was ranked as 'world leading' in the last Research Excellence Framework exercise, and we consistently score in the top 10 chemistry departments nationally in terms of student satisfaction and experience. We do this while delivering our degrees across two campuses (UK and China) to over 1000 students.

As of November 2025: all research active academic staff have been placed in a redundancy pool. At the same time, all teaching-focussed staff have been told that they will be affected indirectly by the redundancy consultation – nice way to present this, as if sacking their colleagues and friends will only ‘indirectly’ affect their job.

This is directly targeting a significant group of serious, world-leading, academics who bring to the University millions of pounds in research income every year and supervise over 100 postgraduate students. So why are they doing it?

We don't really know. But lab-based science subjects cost money - despite this, we are likely one of the few chemistry departments in the world that actually make a considerable amount of money for the university through our large number of students!

As one of our external academic exmainers put it: it is academic vandalism of the highest order.

Geography, Geology, and the Environment

TBC

Film Studies

TBC

Education

Do you want to really understand how much our management values education and pedagogy? Just have a quick look at their plans for the School of Education.

In this case, our leaders showed their true colours right at the start of the strategic review, offering only options that led to severe staff reductions and, ultimately, closure of the School.

The following quote can still be found on the University’s website: “Leicester is where learning lives. For nearly 100 years, we have provided a world-class education”.

Needless to say, the irony is lost on our glorious leaders.