£140m black hole puts jobs at risk, warns Edinburgh University boss

Edinburgh University is facing a £140m black hole that demands radical action including job cuts, according to its vice-chancellor, as it becomes the latest higher education institution to reveal its financial turmoil.

- Richard Adams

Prof Peter Mathieson, the University of Edinburgh's leader, told staff "the magnitude of the financial gap that we need to close" amounted to 10% of annual turnover.

"Savings of such magnitude cannot be achieved by recruitment restraint or other small-scale measures," Mathieson said in an email to staff, warning that the rising cost of staff is "no longer sustainable and we must reduce it".

Edinburgh's £140m deficit forecast over 18 months outstrips the £30m deficit recorded by Cardiff University, meaning it would be the largest deficit by a British university during the funding crisis engulfing the sector.

Mathieson said: "There are several coinciding factors that have brought about the circumstances our sector is now reckoning with, many of which I have warned of publicly and privately for a number of years in a bid to abate this situation.