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More than 100 jobs are at risk at a Welsh university as it faces a drop in student applications.

The University of South Wales blamed Brexit and student grant cuts as being among the reasons for the fall in applications.

It is consulting with staff on making 139 redundancies across all four of its faculties and support departments in Cardiff, Treforest and Newport campuses.

The losses represent 4.6% of the university’s workforce. It is understood that management jobs are most at risk.

The news comes just weeks after it emerged there has been an 8% drop in numbers of applications to study at universities in Wales, from students across the UK and the EU.

Domestic applications from Wales have also fallen 7% - the steepest decline of any of the UK nations - against a backdrop of universal tuition fee grants being scrapped, figures from university admissions service UCAS showed.

At the time Universities Wales, which represents the sector, said universities face a number of challenges such as Brexit and competition for students.

Announcing its job cuts, USW said it hoped most of the jobs would go through voluntary redundancy as it began a 45-day consultation with staff and unions.

More than half of USW’s spend goes on pay and pensions and it is facing a 3% rise in costs.

It said external influences, including the effect of Brexit on applications from EU students, are a long-term and not one-year phenomenon.

A University of South Wales spokesperson said: “USW is sustainable and financially sound.

“Although we’ve broadly maintained our UK student numbers, we’re in a market where the overall number of people going to university is reducing, and recruitment from overseas will be affected by Brexit.

(Image: Andrew James)

“Like many universities, our costs are rising by over 3% a year while our income is staying the same.

“It means we can’t preserve structures and staff headcount in aspic because if we did this the University would, over time, lose its stable financial position.

“We are not prepared to let that happen because we want to keep investing in staff, courses, and facilities so that we can thrive and compete.

“We’re proposing to streamline both non-staff budgets and our management structures.

“Although the proposed reductions in total represent less than 5% of the University’s workforce, we know that that this is difficult for staff who are affected.

“We’re offering a voluntary scheme to support colleagues for whom the decision to leave now may be the right time, and because of the desire to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies.

“We’re consulting with our recognised trade unions, and senior managers are meeting personally with the staff whose roles are affected.”

University of South Wales proposals for significant budget cuts and fears of substantial job losses.

Unison said it will work with USW to identify savings if they need to be made but that should not be at the cost of front line workers. The union's USW branch secretary Dan Beard said: " Our members have had years of constant restructures, redundancies and uncertainty over long term job security.

"Caerleon campus was closed last year ending our presence in the town. Our branch calls on the university to commit to protecting front line staff and if necessary dispense with the increasing practice of retaining and recruiting highly paid management staff which has been the norm in recent years. The union will robustly defend our member’s interests and will be consulting them once the full facts of the proposals are disclosed to consider the next steps that may be necessary.’

(Image: Matthew Horwood)

Pontypridd MP Owen Smith said: " This decision to consult on possible job cuts at our university can be traced back directly to decisions taken by the Conservative UK Government.

“Similar decisions are being forced upon universities in Scotland, Southampton and London.

“The marketisation of higher education in recent years as well as the message they have sent to overseas students that they are unwelcome has had a direct impact on Welsh universities. Brexit will only compound this.

“I’ve spoken to the university and will be meeting them and trades union colleagues in the coming days to see what I can do to help and to minimise job losses in our community."

Across the UK other universities are also cutting posts.

Herriot-Watt in Edinburgh is making 100 redundancies because of the market, and has also blamed Brexit as a reason.

London Met is losing 400 jobs and closing two campuses because of market changes and Manchester Metropolitan is closing a campus with compulsory redundancies not ruled out.

Welsh universities which have made voluntary or compulsory severance schemes in the last couple of years include USW, Bangor, Cardiff, UWTSD, and Wrexham Glyndwr.

Responding to the triggering of Article 50 to begin Britain’s exit talks from the EU, Cardiff University Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Riordan said it was vital to continue welcoming students from abroad.

He said: “There are currently more than 1,300 students from other EU countries studying at Cardiff University and around 600 EU staff * from EU countries..

“They bring great benefits to Cardiff, Wales and the United Kingdom. This diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and is an important part of our culture.

“We are also a beneficiary of the EU’s current flagship research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, and recently held an event to mark receipt of our 50th grant, making a total of £24.5m to date for our world leading research.

“With all that in mind, it is vital that the UK continues to be a welcoming place to EU students and staff, and that universities continue to be able to access valuable and collaborative European research networks."

* A previous version of this article stated there are 1,700 staff from EU countries at Cardiff University. The university has contacted us to say the figure they gave us in a quote was wrong and is in fact 'around 600'.