Universities in financial straits need to be more ambitious instead of 'relying on cuts,' says David Blunkett
“It’s just as though, in the DNA at the moment of most universities, their way of balancing the books is to cut”
Universities must find a way to balance their books without replying on cutting jobs, former Sheffield MP and education secretary David Blunkett has said.
The Labour peer, who is also professor emeritus at the University of Sheffield, said institutes need to be more “ambitious” to solve their financial problems and consider amalgamating with colleges with “a vision for the future.”
It comes following years of successive multi-million pound cuts at both Sheffield Hallam University and UoS following the sharp decline of international students in the city.
As reported by Times Higher Education, Lord Blunkett spoke at the Duolingo English Test conference last week (June 11, 2026).
“Mass redundancies and retrenchment are the order of the day.
“I’d like them to be much more ambitious about how they do manage their finances,” he said.
“Instead of retrench, retrench, retrench, why not look, as a business would do, at new opportunities? It’s just as though, in the DNA at the moment of most universities, their way of balancing the books is to cut.”
“The ambition needs to be put back into the system.
“Whilst the reality of balancing the books is obviously still an imperative”.
On those failing to fix their finances, Blunkett said: “They should be amalgamated with other institutions who’ve got a vision of the future. I don’t want universities to fail, because if they do they have a massive detrimental impact, not just on the opportunity of [local] students who don’t think of going across the country [to study], but on the community and the economic activity that disappears.
“If there’s a problem, let’s look at much greater amalgamation, like Greenwich and Kent have done,” Blunkett said, referring to a plan for the two south-east institutions to form a new university.
He also encouraged university leaders to speak to Reform politicians in areas that won local government seats in the May local elections.
He said: “I think inviting in councillors who have been elected in very large numbers across the country to find out how important the university is locally to their constituents is a very sensible thing to do.
“You’ll need to be very careful how you do it and what you’re presenting, so it’s not counterproductive.
“But why wouldn’t a Reform councillor want to know about the fantastic engineering department or the medical school… or the urban regeneration plans that can be helped by a university?”
It comes amid 18 days of strike action by staff at SHU over proposed cuts to jobs and pension contributions as the former-polytechnic seeks to find £27m in savings this year, on top of more than £20m in 2025.
More than 50 members of the University and College Union joined the picket line as they slammed leaders for what they claimed had been a “doom loop of decline” at the university.
Meanwhile, University of Sheffield staff were told in an email in November 2025 leaders planned to find £23m from axing staffing costs.