The University of Essex will recruit 150 new members of staff, amid a spate of planned redundancies and cutbacks at other universities as a result of a shrinking pool of students and political uncertainty.

Essex is to create 100 new academic and 50 new professional posts as part of the largest expansion of staff in its 55-year history. The university aims to grow student numbers by 5,000 to reach 20,000 by 2025.

Essex was ranked 31st in the Guardian university league tables for 2019, a rise of 17 places on the previous year.

The vice-chancellor of Essex, Prof Anthony Forster, said the recruitment drive is in response to “record levels of interest from applicants” to undergraduate and postgraduate places, combined with an increase in research funding.

“I am immensely proud that we are prioritising investment in staff,” he said. “This will further enhance the educational experience that we offer to our students as well as boost the research power of the University of Essex. We know students want us to invest in staff and that’s what we have announced today.”

According to a recent survey of 14,000 students by the Higher Education Policy Institute, students prioritise investment in staff and teaching quality on their courses over campus facilities. However a recent report suggests that universities spent over £3 billion on new buildings in the past year.

Essex’s recruitment drive stands out in a higher education sector that is grappling with unprecedented financial pressure, with nearly one quarter of universities reporting that they were in deficit last year. Universities are blaming their deteriorating balance sheets on a combination of lowered forecasts for student recruitment, Brexit uncertainty, rising pension costs and rapidly shifting government policy, including the forthcoming Augar review of university funding, which is expected to recommend a cut in headline tuition fees from £9,250 to £7,250.



Since the beginning of this year, several universities in England have announced redundancies. Keele is planning to slash its staff budget by £8 million, Surrey is offering enhanced voluntary severance packages in a bid to make £5 million of savings, more than 50 jobs are at risk in Coventry University’s faculty of health and science, Kent is planning an as yet undetermined number of redundancies and Winchester revealed redunancies in an email inadvertently sent to members of staff. Cambridge is also proposing staff redundancies as part of a drive to ease its £30 million deficit.

This follows universities warnings from several universities at the end of last year to prepare for redundancies. Among these were Cardiff University, a member of the elite Russell Group, and Reading University, which made a £20 million loss for the last financial year. Staff at the University of Gloucestershire are bracing for 100 job cuts and other redundancies.

In England, the lifting of the cap on the number of students universities can recruit combined with a demographic fall in the number of 18-year-olds has resulted in a competitive new market in higher education. This means that the highest ranking universities are able to recruit students who would typically have gone to lower-ranking institutions.

In February, the University of Essex announced that it had suspended a lecturer for posting anti-semitic messages on Facebook.