Financial problems at Cardiff University were flagged “quite some time ago” and “nettles might have been grasped earlier”, its Vice Chancellor has admitted after announcing proposed cuts including the loss of 400 academic posts and closures of entire academic schools. Addressing shocked staff, thousands of whom have received letters from the university saying their jobs are at risk as it faces a £31m deficit, Professor Wendy Larner spoke of her “pain” but insisted the university was being “brave”.

During the webinar to staff on February 4 Professor Larner, who replaced Professor Colin Riordan as Vice Chancellor in September 2023, said the university council warned her that "financial remediation" was needed, but she wanted to wait to build a strategy. A recording of part of the address has been shared with WalesOnline. In it Professor Larner explains the time frame of the proposed cuts.

The Vice Chancellor spoke to staff just hours after hundreds of Cardiff University academics, students and supporters took their protest against the cuts to the steps of the Senedd. Staff at the webinar said Professor Larner took questions about workload and reports that Cardiff’s deficit is the highest of any university not just in Wales but across the border too. You can read more details of the proposed cuts here. You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.

Professor Larner told staff in the webinar: “I do think there are, perhaps, nettles that might have been grasped a little bit earlier. But that just means we would have been having these difficult conversations a little bit earlier than we have.

“Many of you have heard me say our council started to say to me 'financial remedy' quite some time ago. And I was really clear with them that I thought we needed to finish the strategy process first, we needed that from the start.

“We needed to understand where we were going knowing that really challenging financial decisions were on the horizon for us. And again, you know, tough as it sounds and converse as it may seem in the context, we have got a strategy and to know where we are going is so important right now.

“Back to the earlier workload question (inaudible) we are not just cutting for the sake of cutting. We are being brave. We are making difficult decisions. That is incredibly painful. That’s what we are currently working through.”

The university’s financial report in the 12 months to July 2023, two months before Professor Larner took up her post and covering the last year of Professor Colin Riordan’s tenure as Vice Chancellor, says that he left with reputation high and finances healthy. A year later the situation reported was drastically different, which has caused concern among some academics who are asking what was known about the dire financial situation and why there were delays addressing that.

Cardiff University’s latest financial report, published last week and covering the year to July 2024, shows a deficit of £31.2m in the year to July 2023-24. Yet just a year earlier in the financial report to July 2023 the chair of the university’s council, Patrick Younge, writes: “It has been a privilege to work with Professor Riordan, and he leaves the university in a solid position reputationally, and financially.”

Yet in that same report Professor Larner took a different tone warning of an “unsustainable financial situation” with largely static home tuition fees which she said “leaves universities like Cardiff in a challenging position” and “trying to balance the books with overseas students”.

Questioning how the university finances have been managed some staff said they felt let down and angry. One academic who is under threat of redundancy and did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, said: “This is an astonishing admission of failure by the Vice Chancellor. She concedes she could have acted sooner.

“Her refusal to act sooner has led to the university deficit accelerating to the highest so far declared by a UK University. This failure to act has deepened the crisis and means more academics will lose their jobs.

“Why did the university council let her delay acting for so long? Acting sooner would have meant accumulated savings and a lower deficit. This is dereliction of duty by the chair of the university, Pat Younge, the university council and the university executive board.”

It is understood that the University Council is due to meet tomorrow February 6. Universities across the UK and Wales are warning of financial pressure caused by a combination of inflation, fewer high paying international students, largely stagnant home tuition fees and new National Insurance payments.

The eight universities in Wales are expected to collectively have racked up a deficit of around £70m in the 12 months to July 2024, Universities Wales, which represents the institutions, said this week. All but Bangor have published their latest financial reports in the last few days.

Cardiff University UCU is to ballot members over possible strike action over job losses. It warned that compulsory redundancy was a red line and action may include non-marking and disruption to graduations as well as walk outs. The Welsh Government, which has said it only knew of the suggested Cardiff University cuts a week before they were announced, has said it will not provide universities with any more money.

Cardiff University said: “We reject the accusation that the university should have acted sooner. We have acted. We have taken a series of measures to address the immediate and unprecedented financial pressures we’re facing. A Voluntary Severance Scheme (VSS) and wider recruitment controls, a rationalisation of our estate and other cost saving measures have been put in place and are helping to address the immediate financial challenge.

"We know that it is no longer an option for us to continue as we are. Additional external financial pressures including the well-publicised decline in international student recruitment and the national insurance increases have made the financial pressures even more acute.

“It was right that we consulted with our staff and students on the university that we want and to secure our long-term future. Securing our future, in the context of tightening finances, means we need to take difficult decisions to realise our ambitions to enhance our education and research, and improve the staff and student experience.

“We stress that these are proposals. Our final plans will be shaped by our community – both internal and external - through formal consultation. The scale of the challenge will remain, but the way that we address it will certainly be refined and developed over the next 90 days.”