Students have seen lectures cancelled as university staff strike this week over the threat of future redundancies.

The University of Kent, which has campuses in Canterbury and Medway, has been embroiled in financial trouble for years.

In February last year, KentOnline revealed the institution had issued “at risk of redundancy” notices to 58 staff, while 40 others had taken voluntary redundancy.

In March last year the institution even abolished courses - axing programmes in anthropology, art history, health and social care, journalism, music and audio technology, and philosophy.

The decision sparked protests at the University’s Canterbury campus, and Karen Cox, who had led the university as vice-chancellor since 2017, resigned shortly thereafter.

At the start of this year the institution was running a voluntary redundancy scheme and leaving roles unfilled in a desperate bid to save £19.5 million.

However, those staff at the university who are members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted to strike thoughout this week.

In a statement, the trade union says “The university has found itself in a regular cycle of cuts to staff, courses and restructures, all of which impact the livelihoods and workloads of staff who work tirelessly to support students, conduct outstanding research and scholarship, and keep the university going.

“Staff are taking action after the employer refused to rule out compulsory redundancies or provide guarantees that staff will not suffer detriment to their workload or working conditions.

“In negotiations this year, management extended a promise of no compulsory redundancies to academic teaching staff until December 2025.

“However, they could not guarantee the same for professional services staff (such as student support, marketing, and library services), some of whom are also UCU members.”

On Monday, the Parliament of Kent Students’ Union (KSU) voted “overwhelmingly” to support the strikes according to KSU president Lulu Collins.

“There are many opinions among students though,” she added.

“A lot of students aren’t fully au fait with why UCU are striking – there’s no real communication between the UCU and students.”

Many of the staff striking will also be postgraduate students who work as teaching assistants - who are also members of KSU.

“The changes that the UCU are struggling with - the restructuring, etc - students just don’t feel in the know about it,” Ms Collins continued.

She added that as with some previous strikes, it is possible the university will run a scheme to compensate students for lost teaching time during the industrial action, but this is not guaranteed.

Any savings the University makes due to the strikes cannot be kept by the University itself.

As such, the money will either be used for individual financial compensation for students, or hardship funds or a mix of both, depending on the impact of the strikes.

Ms Collins continued: “About 70% of universities are facing financial deficits this year, a lot of the sector is really unstable, and that means that conflicts like this I think are more likely to occur.

“At the end of the day, the uni has so many resources and UCU has a strong mandate so it can only move forward by talking to find a solution that’s sustainable.

“For our students’ and staff’s sake I hope that happens soon.”

According to the university, it has almost 19,000 students and more than 4,500 staff - of which 1,200 are academic staff.

A spokesman for the university said yesterday: “Despite constructive negotiations last week, some staff who are University and College Union members are taking five days of strike action from today.

“Under our Redundancy Avoidance Agreement with the Union, when we need to make staff savings, we ensure we explore all options to avoid the need for compulsory redundancies which are only ever a last resort.

“As we continue to work through these options with UCU, we are disappointed to see strike action and are open to continued talks to try and resolve their concerns.

“In the meantime we have plans in place to ensure any impact on our students is minimised as far as possible.”