Higher Education Strategic Risk Analysis Report 2025/26 18 Risk commentary and recommendations People related risks in HE are increasing. Published information12 indicates over 13,000 roles were cut from 90 universities in 2024-25, alongside changes to terms and conditions and pensions provision, as part of efforts to reduce operating costs. While press coverage focuses on the headline numbers, the impacts of job cuts on this scale is likely to be far-reaching in terms of morale, wellbeing, commitment to collaborative working, and driving change and innovation in teaching and research. In this environment, continued focus on workforce planning and staff engagement is essential to build resilience and maintain a high-quality student experience and impactful research. While people and human resources is likely to be the primary responsibility of a different Committee, we recommend that the audit committee should: • Ensure that people related risks are appropriately reflected in the strategic risk register, particularly if there have been, or are likely to be, significant reductions in staffing and/or restructuring; • Seek assurance that reductions in staffing are carefully planned and managed, and that leaders and managers are appropriately trained and supported to help minimise the loss of critical skills and negative impacts on morale; • Test and seek assurance on dependencies between people risks and other strategic risks, for example in relation to delivering student and research outcomes; 12 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spend-two-thirdsuniversities-shed-13000-jobs 2.6 Research ranked joint 9th inherent and 7th residual Risk findings: This year 65% of universities in our sample feature research as a strategic risk, compared to 47% three years ago. Average inherent and residual risk scores are very similar to 2024/25, and scores do not tend to vary widely between institutions, despite the universities having significantly different research portfolios in terms of subjects and scale. Research risks are primarily characterised in terms of an inability to secure sufficient external funding to support strategic aims, either from research funders and/or from the 2029 REF exercise. Risk mitigation activities include: • Actions to attract and support research talent through pay and reward, working patterns, and investment in research leadership and development. Many institutions identify a separate risk around retaining academic researchers; • Strengthening research support teams, management software, and internal peer review; • More emphasis on setting research objectives, financial planning, and management of income targets; and • Relationship building with research funders and greater focus on building local and regional partnerships for research and innovation.
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