The staff of University of Bradford are writing as a group to formally express deep concerns to the Executive Board and University Council regarding the Transformational Change Programme (TCP), the impact on staffing levels and career progression, and its potential impact on the long-term sustainability of financially viable courses.

The current proposals of Transformational Change programme go against all four of the Universities values - Trust, Excellence, Inclusion and Innovation. Considering these concerns, we strongly urge the Executive to consider a revised and more strategic approach to restructuring and staffing decisions, including:

1. A Less Hierarchical Academic Structure: The perpetuation of a permanent faculty-level bureaucracy should be reconsidered, with responsibilities more effectively delegated to staff. Heads of Schools could then be directly engaged with the academic senior team, while still being in touch with the base. We suggest that faculties are not required, and that Schools do not require amalgamation of distinct discipline areas into less coherent units as suggested in the proposed Phase One re-structure. A flatter hierarchical structure would enable more responsive decision-making and resource allocation and allow successful Schools to thrive.

2. A Clear Strategy for Implementation: Senior management have not shown a coherent integrated final organisational structure and as such are unable to demonstrate how a Target Operating Model (TOM) will deliver sustainability for the institution. The current model of reactive change, based on minor change in the previous phases, shows that the Executive do not have a robust integrated plan or vision for the final structure of the institution. This disaggregated organisational change process is not assuring staff that the Executive have a fully formulated strategic plan to reform the organisation. The lack of vision is significantly undermining the confidence staff have in senior management to deliver a healthy sustainable future for the institution. Poorly made short sighted decisions risk long term reputational damage to the University.

3. Preserving Experience and Expertise: The staff of the University are its most important asset. Having staff who are crucial to the University’s success leave, and the increased likelihood that staff will choose to leave in the face of increased workloads, poor promotion prospects and the possible downgrading of roles, is a high-risk strategy that could have irreversible consequences. A more selective and thoughtful approach to staffing is essential. The TCP needs to be carefully managed to ensure that existing successes of the organisation are not damaged or put at risk, for example the loss of accreditation, worsening student experience and recruitment. The loss of experienced staff cannot be easily compensated in the short term and may even jeopardise currently financially viable and profitable parts of the University. Many of us can recall the damaging effect of the Bradford Excellence Programme on crucial support services, with the harm it did to students, quality and reputation. Lessons learned then must not now be ignored.

4. Accountability: Whilst there are very clearly sectoral factors at play not all issues were unforeseeable. In fact our home undergraduate recruitment had been bucking a national trend of growth even prior to covid. All of this pointed to a need for action to arrest what was even then an alarming weakness in performance. Clearly mistakes have been made, and this lack of leadership cannot be ignored. The numbers relating to the University’s financial deficit appear to be changing on what seems to be a weekly basis. The Executive Board must accept some culpability for failing to ensure that the institution is best placed to meet the current challenges that face the sector.

5. Securing all our Futures: It is difficult to have any confidence that the proposals as presented will secure the future of the institution and those of us who care passionately about it. The Executive must urgently turn its attention to developing proposals that will deliver on the aspirational content in the 5-year plan and must do so through engagement with the wider University body. The current restructuring proposals must meet the needs of the plan going forwards; mistakes made now will hinder that delivery.

We appreciate your consideration and welcome the opportunity for further dialogue on this pressing matter. We would urge the Executive to work constructively with the Unite, Unison and UCU branches at the University of Bradford.