New numbers: Sacked UCPH staff worked in research and teaching

University of Copenhagen (UCPH) management claimed 11 March that it was the technical administrative personnel (TAP) that had been the hardest hit by the recent round of layoffs and volunteer redundancies. But it is research and education services that have been hardest hit in terms of staff numbers according to data obtained by Danish-language news site Uniavisen.dk.

“Management is not showing a correct picture of reality, when it claims that the administration is bearing the brunt of the cuts,” says Joan Lykkeaa, a staff rep who represents laboratory technicians at UCPH.

261 staff in total, or 137 scientific staff (or so-called ‘VIP’), researchers and educators, and 124 techical/administrative staff that worked in science and teaching (so-called ‘TAP-FU’ category), like lab technicians and bio-analysts, have been either fired or have left their jobs voluntarily. By comparison 176 administrative staff (‘TAP-AS’) have been dismissed or left voluntarily.

Runaway process

Former Minister of Education Esben Lunde Larsen (Liberal Party) and the new minister Ulla Tørnæs (Liberal Party) both claimed that the government cuts to funding of Danish universities could be carried out without a drop in education and research quality.

Læs mere:

The big UCPH meltdown: Timeline of the cuts

Staff rep Joan Lykkeaa says that management at the University of Copenhagen has not lived up to what was announced: “It is as if there has been no control, and that the process has run away from the original intention of keeping cuts away from the core services. But we can’t do anything now but shout and protest,” she says.

UCPH management has so far not commented the new numbers.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

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