Ten days of UCU strike action and demonstrations began at The University of Sheffield with a walkout by staff on April 30.

The UCU – University and College Union – which represents more than 120,000 people has called for action in response to £23 million worth of cuts to staff – causing many faculty members to face the risk of redundancy.

The UCU issued a statement which said: “We believe that the university is taking a particularly conservative approach to its financial risk, and that there is not a strong financial argument behind pursuing these compulsory redundancies.”

The UCU said 74% of members who voted on the matter, supported the strike action.

Philosophy professor at The University of Sheffield, Eric Olson, 61, said: “I am trying to stop the management from destroying the university, they are trying to get rid of hundreds of jobs without having shown any financial need for it, it doesn’t make very much sense.”

The UCU has demanded Sheffield University management to ‘avoid compulsory redundancies by working with staff to re-design the current restructure proposals to preserve all jobs.’

At the moment, 1 in 2 universities are cutting jobs or announcing redundancies and according to the UCU ‘higher education is on its knees.’