Cardiff University will continue to offer courses in nursing after reducing the amount of job cuts it plans to make by more than 100, according to new proposals.

Vice-chancellor Wendy Larner has informed staff of several potential changes to the university¡¯s restructuring programme following an initial consultation, including reducing the number of full-time-equivalent roles being lost to 286, down from an initial tally of 400.

The institution had initially intended to shut its nursing school entirely ¨C drawing widespread criticism ¨C but Larner says in the email that an alternative proposal is now being considered that will see it take on fewer students, but retain its adult, child and mental health nursing courses.

Redundancies in the School of Healthcare Sciences are being paused as a result, Larner says, adding that ¡°the applications received so far to the voluntary severance and voluntary redundancy scheme provide the required staffing levels to offer and deliver the newly reshaped nursing programmes on a sustainable basis¡±.

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In a separate email to staff, Steve Riley, dean of medicine and head of school at Cardiff University, says that the degree programmes will be ¡°reshaped significantly¡±, and will see the student-staff ratio rise to 18:1.

¡°The alternative proposal would mean teaching fewer undergraduate students each year, but focusing heavily on the student experience and support provided throughout the degree. This should result in a higher proportion of students successfully graduating and moving into the Welsh NHS. We will also seek to redevelop our postgraduate offering and maintain a research base for the profession in Wales,¡± Riley writes.

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He adds: ¡°This is good news for the public, patients and of course the future nursing workforce in Wales.¡±

The updated restructuring plan also sees staff in the School of Chemistry and the School of Mathematics removed from the risk of redundancy. Lerner says that the university¡¯s controversial plans to open a Kazakhstan campus will ¡°require input from Mathematics colleagues, meaning that the reduction in full time equivalent that we were looking to achieve is smaller¡±.

She adds that the institution has so far approved 81 staff for voluntary redundancy, and ongoing applications mean that it is on course to make 114 full-time-equivalent role reductions. The proposals also mean that the number of staff in scope of redundancy has fallen from 1,807, to 1,307.

¡°I know that this remains a really difficult period for many of our staff. Some of you are very understandably worried about the future; even those of you who are no longer at risk will be feeling a range of emotions,¡± Larner writes.

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A Cardiff UCU spokesperson noted that while it is ¡°relieved¡± for the staff that have been taken out of the scope for redundancy, the university has not ruled out compulsory redundancies.

¡°Today¡¯s news is not good enough. It is unforgivable that so many of our members remain in fear for their livelihoods, especially when other sensible, evidence-based options are on the table,¡± the spokesperson said.

¡°As we have argued from the start, compulsory redundancies are avoidable if the university dials back its overly ambitious and unnecessary money-making targets and draws on its hundreds of millions in available cash to fund a more gradual recovery. Instead, it still favours this rushed, slash-and-burn approach.¡±

They warned that the university needs to take action or else face a ¡°summer of disruptive, but avoidable, industrial action¡±.

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Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru¡¯s spokesperson on health and care, welcomed the news, but added ¡°the fact remains that we simply shouldn¡¯t have gotten to this point in first place, especially when we know that Wales currently faces a 2,000 nursing shortage¡±.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com