SOURCE BBC:
Ulster University is cutting 210 jobs this year and 1,200 student places over the next three years due to a reduction in its funding.
The move is in response to an £8.6m cut in the subsidy received from the Department of Employment and Learning (DEL).
Prof Alastair Adair, the university’s acting vice-chancellor, blamed the cuts on the Northern Ireland Executive.
“The executive is disinvesting in our young people,” he said.
“We are competing at a national level, at international level, giving our students the best student experience, and having that undermined by failure to take decisions at Stormont.”
Prof Deirdre Heenan, the university’s pro-vice-chancellor, said “we are now presiding over a diminishing higher education sector” in Northern Ireland.
Stephen Farry, the DEL minister, acknowledged that the situation could worsen unless the continuing dispute over the Stormont budget was resolved.
Full-time undergraduate places will be cut by 250 in September, with a reduction of 950 further places during 2016 and 2017.
Job losses will be among both academic and non-academic staff, but the university is hoping no compulsory redundancies will be required.
