Broken budgets and broken English

On Wednesday, all staff at Sheffield Hallam were called to an online meeting with the university’s leaders and told that the university’s already perilous financial situation had got even worse. In the 2025/26 academic year, it was explained, the university needed to make £28 million in cuts — about £8.7 million more than first predicted. That means even more staff will be leaving very soon, with a new redundancy scheme launching immediately. “We were just aghast, what more is there to say?” one academic tells me over the phone. “People just feel they have been mugged, literally kicked in the teeth.”

In an email sent to staff, shared with The Tribune, the university outlined how it hoped to close the gaping hole in its budget. Despite having already shed around 500 members of staff through a voluntary redundancy scheme last year — roughly 10% of its workforce — Hallam has now begun another such scheme. “There will be nothing left of the university. It will be hollowed out,” the academic, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his position, warns. “The number of teaching staff has already been literally cut to the bone and the people left are… basically doing the jobs of three or four people.” He alleges that everyone left working at the university “knows at least two or three people in their area who are off on long-term sick leave” because of the strain.

The cost-cutting measures don’t stop there. The email to staff notes there are approximately £17m worth of unfilled vacancies across the university, an untold number of which will now not be filled. “The more we can save through the removal of vacancies or the replacement with lower grades,” the email notes, “the easier it will be to meet our financial targets.” On top of that, the university’s plans to reopen the panel through which staff could apply for promotions (which was suspended two years ago) have now been put on hold. 

An email sent to staff by the Sheffield Hallam branch of the University and College Union (UCU) estimates that around 300 staff, including 150 academic staff, would need to take redundancy in order to prevent compulsory redundancies down the line. The planned cuts are focused, the UCU notes, on the College of Social Sciences and Arts, which teaches courses including Public Health, History, Law and Education. 

When asked about this latest round of cuts, a Hallam spokesperson said that the university is “experiencing financial challenges due to a combination of external factors” and is thus being forced to make “some difficult decisions,” although it will “seek to avoid compulsory redundancies where possible”. They added: "Despite these challenges, Sheffield Hallam continues to be a large and popular university, offering an outstanding student experience. We are proud of our Gold-rated teaching, our award-winning research, and the important role we play in the city and region.” 

The email sent to staff states these external factors include fewer UK undergraduate students applying to the university than expected this year and “new uncertainty around international student recruitment following the Government’s immigration white paper”. However, as we first reported in 2023, many university insiders also blame “risky financial decisions” made by senior leaders, some of whom left in the last round of voluntary redundancies, such as the decision to invest in a London campus and new buildings in Sheffield city centre. 

Before this bombshell meeting took place, The Tribune had planned to publish an article about Sheffield Hallam’s international students, after hearing allegations from staff that many of these students were being “set up to fail”. Staff claim that a significant number of international students who arrived at the university this year can barely speak English, leaving them totally unable to cope with the demands of their course and, in some cases, driving them to cheat. “I would question whether some of these students should be here in the first place,” one lecturer says. 

Responding to concerns about the abilities of international students in general, the Hallam spokesperson insisted the claims made by staff are significantly inaccurate and misleading. They added:

“Our English language requirements for international students are broadly in line with other universities, including from the Russell Group, and are higher than several other similar modern universities. They are also above the UK Visas and Immigration minimum requirements. Furthermore, the fluctuations we have seen in international student applications and offers made are broadly similar to other universities, and largely as a result of changes to UK Government policy. We are proud of our students from across the world who choose to study at Sheffield Hallam, and we very much welcome the enormous benefits they bring to our city, region and wider university community.”

Devastating budget cuts and students with an allegedly faltering grasp of English are more connected than they first appear. Fees for international students are not capped like fees for those from the UK, meaning income from these students is, as one academic put it, “probably keeping many universities afloat”. International students hoping to study a masters degree in International Business Management, one of the most popular courses for those coming from abroad, have to pay £17,725 in fees, whereas UK students only pay £10,620. Cushioning the blow from the drop in international applications — by approving more of them — is one way to manage that bottom line. As one lecturer put it: “The overarching priority at Hallam is putting people in seats, I don’t think it’s about the quality of the experience.”

When I tell a member of admissions staff at the University of Manchester about the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores that could earn you a place at Sheffield Hallam he describes them as “absolutely insane”.