Email sent to members on Monday 9th March 2026.
As part of our fight to protect jobs and working conditions at the University of Nottingham, we will be sending regular emails outlining various aspects of our campaign. Today, we discuss the role of the Chair of Council Sir Keith O’Nions in the university’s financial debacle. Further details about our campaign can be found on our webpages, via the Future Nottingham tab.
Sir Keith O’Nions – Engendering Decline
The Council of the University of Nottingham plays a key role in the development of the institution. As it is highlighted on the university website, ‘University Council is a key component of the University’s governance structure, critiquing, debating and ratifying decisions which shape the future of the University. Council plays a critical role in challenging University decisions, influencing strategy and supporting the work of the University’s Executive Board which is made up of a small group of executive colleagues.’
Sir Keith O’Nions has been the Chair of Council since January 2020.
When the pandemic struck in Spring 2020, the University of Nottingham (UoN) experienced financial difficulties, which required drastic action. All non-essential spending was immediately suspended, a voluntary redundancy scheme resulted in the loss of more than 400 members of staff, and fixed-term and postgraduate teaching posts were terminated. In June/July 2020, budget cuts of 15 per cent were imposed on all faculties for the subsequent academic year.
In March 2021, the local University and College Union (UCU) branch presented its Alternative Financial Strategy (AFS). We pointed out that unless university management changed its lean financial management strategy, in which long-term infrastructure projects are exclusively financed through annual surpluses while cash reserves are being kept low, a similar situation was likely to re-occur a few years down the line.
Importantly, we contacted Sir Keith O’Nions at the time and asked him to circulate our financial alternative in Council. Nevertheless, the Chair of Council, responsible for the oversight of UoN finances, refused to do so. ‘The Chair and Council’, we were told, ‘are both fully apprised of, and have complete confidence in, the financial positioning of the University and require no additional external input’ (17 June, 2021).
Only a few months later, Council with Sir Keith O’Nions at its helm authorised the purchase of Castle Meadow Campus (CMC). It approved the initial acquisition cost of £37.5 million, i.e. Phase 1, and an additional £47m + vat, i.e. £54 million funding envelope, i.e. Phase 2, for a 10-year development plan, i.e. £91.5 million overall.
Senate, the only partly democratic institution within the university’s governance structure, pointed out that CMC was not fit for purpose as it did not have enough teaching rooms for a start. Instead of listening to reason, the Chair of Council together with the former Registrar stepped in and disempowered Senate through a change in its statutes.
Unsurprisingly, with the same financial strategy in place, by the end of 2023, the University was facing financial difficulties again. An immediate hiring freeze and non-pay savings were combined with a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS), which resulted in the ‘voluntary’ redundancy of almost 300 staff in June 2024.
And still, the University of Nottingham with Sir Keith O’Nions as its Chair of Council soldiered on regardless. More money was invested in CMC and the financial model remained the same. In early 2025 it became finally clear that more drastic action had to be taken to keep the university afloat. Management finally accepted that CMC was not fit for purpose, estimating that it may have to sell it for no more than £14.5 million. Heads did roll. The term of the VC Shearer West was not renewed, the Registrar Paul Greatrix and the Chief Financial Officer Margaret Monckton both had to leave. However, Sir Keith O’Nions as Chair of Council stayed on.
Future Nottingham, a grand restructuring plan, was put forward. Phase 1 resulted in the loss of 350 mainly administrative staff through ‘voluntary redundancies’, Phase 2 is likely to cause further redundancies of hundreds of staff, this time mainly academics and technicians. A host of study programmes are earmarked for closure, higher staff-student ratios are intended to teach more students with fewer staff. And yet again, it is Sir Keith O’Nions, who ensured that the Strategic Case for Change was pushed through Council in November 2025.
In sum, it was Sir Keith O’Nions, who ensured that the purchase of Castle Meadow Campus was waived through Council back in 2021. It was he, who refused to share the Alternative Financial Strategy 1.0, produced by UCU, with members of Council. It was he who, together with the former Registrar, engineered the disempowerment of Senate. It is he who is currently driving the disastrous Future Nottingham restructuring programme. He is in many respects one of the key architects of the university’s current mess.
It is Sir Keith O’Nions who has engendered deline! No wonder that members of all three campus unions included him in their Vote of No Confidence.
On behalf of the UCU Branch Committee