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I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your continued dedication, professionalism, and care.

The work that you do each day makes a real and lasting impact – on our students, our research, and the communities that we serve.

The last few months have been very challenging – both for the UK Higher Education sector as a whole, and for us. These challenges reflect rapidly rising costs, an unsustainable funding model for universities, and a decline in demand from international students. Although Queen’s has grown considerably over the past few years with more than 500 new posts since 2022 and a substantial increase in income, the factors causing an issue in universities across the UK also affect us here in Queen’s. So the University has operated at a deficit as a result.

We've a responsibility to return to a break-even position and have been addressing this through a range of initiatives aimed at reducing our costs and diversifying and growing our income. To reduce costs, we ran a Voluntary Severance Scheme in February of this year. The scheme provided those colleagues who wished to leave the University with the opportunity to do so.

To those colleagues who have chosen to depart under the scheme, I would like to thank you on behalf of the entire university community for your service and contribution during your time with us. We wish you all the very best in your future endeavours.

During the past five years, we have invested heavily in our staff and we've ensured that we remain strong and aligned with the delivery of our core priorities. The current Voluntary Severance Scheme means that we will revert to similar staffing levels as we had in 2023.

So the Voluntary Severance Scheme has achieved its goal. Now that we know the outcome of this scheme, we can adjust our structure. However, with a lower number of staff, it's essential that we streamline our processes and implement digital transformation to reduce the administrative burden. This will allow us to focus on the quality of our work rather than the quantity. This transformation is a key priority for us.

With the Voluntary Severance Scheme complete, our focus now turns to opportunities to grow and diversify our income. Our focus on financial sustainability, through cost reduction and income growth, will allow us to safeguard jobs and sustain the exceptional student experience that we offer at Queen’s.

For clarity, I want to assure you that we are not considering or planning any further redundancies.

I know that these changes bring understandable uncertainty. So let me reassure you that we're navigating them effectively, but also with care and with a clear sense of purpose.

For the majority of colleagues, there will be little or no change to current working arrangements. For others, we will be working with each of you to ensure that we have a model that works well for everyone, and specifically a model that does not lead to excessive workload.

Our guiding focus is to ensure that we continue to meet our aims and objectives as set out in Strategy 2030 – building a more connected, impactful, and sustainable University for the future.

We’re doing all of this in the context of significant external challenges. As you know, geopolitical uncertainty is affecting international student numbers across the sector. Further, recent global, national, and regional economic developments will affect all sectors, including Higher Education, such as the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, adding more than £4m annually to our costs.

In addition, tuition fees in our region have not kept pace with inflation for more than a decade. The leaders of the Higher Education sector in Northern Ireland have this morning written to the Northern Ireland Executive, calling on them to put Higher Education on a more sustainable footing by implementing a modest inflationary uplift in the fee. We have stressed this must be alongside a matching uplift in maintenance funding for student support. Such a change will not, on its own, address the sector’s financial challenges, but it will be a step forward by allowing us to plan now for a sustainable future for the sector.

As a leading UK university, we are in a strong position following our interventions. Our research strength, our reputation and our student demand remain robust.

And we remain absolutely focused on your wellbeing, on managing workload more effectively, and on ensuring that Queen’s continues to grow sustainably and successfully. This includes driving forward projects to best position Queen’s to invest for the future and maintain a stable footing.

As I updated you in January, we are on track to become the first UK Russell Group university to open a campus in GIFT City, India. The commitment, over an initial five-year period, will cement our position as a leading global university intent on fostering international collaborations. The projected returns will be re-invested in core university activities, as a key component in supporting the University’s financial sustainability.

Thank you again for your ongoing support and contribution. Please be assured that supporting our staff and adapting to any changes that follow voluntary severance will be a key institutional priority.

We will continue to communicate directly with you and provide you with updates in relation to organisational change. I look forward to speaking with you and hearing your views and feedback in a series of upcoming All Staff Sessions. You will receive an invitation email providing details of the sessions in the next few days. I do hope you can join us for these important conversations.

Thank you.