Nottingham Redundancies: Briefing Data
The University of Nottingham has served notice to staff in its Chemistry Department that they are at risk of redundancy.
This blog is intended to do two things:
Publicise the petition to oppose the redundancies. Please sign if you feel able to support the calm and professional statements it contains.
Gather objective public data about the Department’s teaching (with hyperlinks) to support journalism and lobbying around the proposals. My aim is to make it easier for people to make some noise about these plans.
I am about to become swamped by exam marking, but am open to factual correction on any items. If journalists want quotes or to talk for background, please email me ( MONeill8 “at“ liverpool.ac.uk ) with an urgent flag. I am very junior, though! - there are better authorities in the Royal Society of Chemistry or among the senior names currently filling the petition (suggestion: CTRL+F for “FRS”).
Description of Proposals
The petition describes 46 academic Chemistry staff in the School. Of these, 31 (67%) are at risk of redundancy, with 14 (30%) redundancies proposed.
Redundancies apparently significantly impact teaching-focused staff, who seem to have twice as much teaching workload as research-aligned academic staff.
The petition does not specify numbers, but also mentions proposals to cut technical staffing. Technical staff are completely central to the “signature pedagogy” of Chemistry: laboratory practicals. Cuts to technical staffing may therefore threaten core teaching as well.
Institutional Context
The University of Nottingham is in a bad position financially, and this has been public knowledge for some time. Student reporting in the Tab recently placed it in the #1 slot in their ranking of Russell Group financial deficits (£85.3m). I cannot find a 2024-25 return, but the 2023-24 finances described the University having enough liquid assets to cover 44 days of operating expenses. (DT031 Table 14) The Union branch has presented alternate approaches to the institution’s finances for several years.
The Education Committee recently considered evidence that the credit rating of the University was up-graded in summer 2025 because the credit agencies judged that Government intervention was likely in the event of institution-threatening financial distress. (p49, point 111)
Chemistry is not the only subject affected. Local news reports 2,700 staff at risk of redundancy. A parallel petition for Physics and Astronomy is also circulating, and full-scale closures of non-Science Departments is being discussed as well.
Teaching Data
Nottingham has one of the largest undergraduate Chemistry cohorts in the country. HESA data for 2024-25 (the most recent year available) describes 495 undergraduate Chemistry students. This makes it the eighth-largest entry in the HESA record, teaching many more undergraduate chemists than Universities such as Cambridge. (DT051 Table 49) Despite this huge number, 495 is actually an abnormally low volume of Chemistry undergraduates in the available data for Nottingham; years before 2024-25 typically have numbers in the range 800-1000.
There are 135 staff associated with Nottingham’s Chemistry cost centre in the 2024-25 data. (DT025 Table 11) Many of these will be roles such as postdoctoral researchers, with minimal exposure to teaching.
The student:staff ratio is reported as 14 by the Guardian, slightly poorer than the University-wide S:SR of 13. Losing 30% of staff would inflate this to (14/0.7=) 20, materially damaging this ranking metric. Only one University currently has a number above 20 in the current Chemistry ranking table.
Teaching at a 20:1 student:staff ratio in such a large Department would be extremely challenging, especially if cuts target teaching-focused staff disproportionately and are carried out before making well-considered changes to the curriculum.
The 2026 Guardian Subject League Table ranks Nottingham 37th of 49, with good student satisfaction scores being somewhat brought down by the “value added” score. The Times League Table ranks Nottingham 27th for Chemistry and the Complete University Guide at 22nd. This somewhat reflects the weighting of research activity in non-Guardian calculations, which in Chemistry is typically incorporated into undergraduate teaching through students doing project work in the final year of the degree.
My opinion
I offer these statements as my own view, as they go beyond factual description. Please note that I have tried to focus on teaching, and this has meant that I have not mentioned Nottingham’s excellent research profile in any meaningful way.
Nottingham’s Chemistry Department is highly regarded for its undergraduate teaching, and its teaching staff are valued figures in the national Chemistry Education community. The national Chemistry and Physics Higher Education conference ViCEPHEC will be hosted by Nottingham in August 2026. Winning the bid to host the conference speaks directly to the high standing of Nottingham in the national conversation about teaching in the Physical Sciences.
The scale of proposed cuts raises logistical questions about the provision of basic teaching, in my opinion. It is not clear to me that such dramatic action would leave the Department with enough staff to teach the advertised degree. Specifically: lab teaching and project work is extremely difficult to administer at very high student:staff ratios.
Nottingham is a load-bearing institution for teaching Chemistry in the UK, and the national supply of excellent Chemistry graduates is materially threatened by these proposals in my opinion. This poses a significant policy problem for most of the government’s Industrial Strategy sectors, and the anticipated trajectory of Britain’s high-skills economy.
Serving redundancy notices at the start of exam season is highly demoralising, and seems highly likely to distress colleagues exhausted at the end of the academic year. It also invites industrial action in ways which seem likely to disrupt assessment and graduation.
It is extremely heartening to see Nottingham students signing the petition, and I know this will mean a lot to staff.