The scenario
It is 9.40am on Tuesday of clearing week. An hour ago the University of Wexley – a large post-92 institution with 24,000 students – emailed all staff announcing a “Shaping Wexley’s Future” programme. Around 450 posts are at risk of redundancy: roughly 260 in professional services and 190 academic roles, about one in eight of the university’s staff.
The university says it is facing a projected deficit of £31m by 2027–28, blaming the frozen home undergraduate fee, a 22 per cent fall in international enrolments over two years, and rising employer costs. Modern languages, music and performing arts, and philosophy will close to new entrants from September 2027, with around 2,100 current students in affected departments to be “taught out”. The announcement stresses that “the student experience will be protected” but gives no detail on how.
The £45m “Digital Quarter” capital project on the north campus is continuing. The Vice Chancellor, Professor David Merchant, is paid £338,000 and declined to answer a question about his own pay at this morning’s staff briefing. UCU has called the plans “vandalism” and is moving to a ballot. A staff and student rally is planned for Thursday. Meanwhile the clearing hotline upstairs is still selling places – including, until someone thought better of it at 11am, on two of the courses now closing.
By lunchtime the students’ union inbox has requests from BBC Radio Wexley, the regional TV news, and the student paper. All want an officer today.
What the union knows – officers only
You found out 45 minutes before staff did, at an embargoed briefing with the Deputy Vice Chancellor. You agreed to the embargo. You have not yet agreed a union position beyond a two-line holding statement (“deeply concerned… seeking urgent assurances”).
The union’s block grant – £2.1m a year – comes from the university. The student paper knows this and has run “lapdog” pieces before.
One of your officer team is a final-year music student whose own course is now closing to new entrants.
The student paper has shown you a leaked internal modelling paper that appears to sketch a second phase of around 150 further cuts. You cannot verify it and the university won’t comment on it.
A group of students is openly organising an occupation of Senate House for Friday. They have asked the union to back it. You haven’t decided. You also haven’t decided whether to call for the Vice Chancellor’s resignation – some of your officer team want to, some think it’s a distraction.
What you actually want, when you manage to say it: no compulsory redundancies until every alternative is exhausted, cast-iron published guarantees for taught-out students, students and staff on the programme board, the real numbers published, and student-facing services taken out of scope.
Your task
Three officers will each do one interview. Before the interviews, everyone gets ten minutes to prep – work in pairs, and use the prep sheet below. You may bring one small card of notes; you may not read from it.
Interview one – BBC Radio Wexley, drivetime, live
Five minutes, live, general audience: parents, staff who’ve just had the email, local taxpayers, people who’ve never set foot on campus. The presenter is fair but persistent.
Interview two – regional TV news, pre-record
They will use about 30 seconds of whatever you say. The reporter’s job is to get a usable clip; yours is to make sure the usable clip is the one you came to give.
Interview three – the student paper
Knows more detail than you’d like, wants the Vice Chancellor’s head, and wants to know why the union is so quiet. On the record, recorded on a phone.
Prep
Who is listening
Write down, for your slot, who is actually on the other end. A worried parent hearing “restructure” on the school run needs different words from a student journalist who has read the leaked paper.
The one thing
Write the single sentence you want quoted tomorrow. If a clip of you exists after this, this is the clip. Test: is it about people, is it plain English, could your nan repeat it?
Three supports
Three things that back the one thing up: what this means for students, what the union is demanding, and what happens next. Numbers help – one in eight staff, 2,100 students, £45m still going on buildings.
Bridges
Prepare three phrases that take you from their question back to your message without sounding evasive. “What I can tell you is…” “The question students are asking me is…” “I’m not going to speculate on that – what matters today is…”
The hard five
Agree in your pair, before you go in, your actual answers to the five questions you least want: should the VC resign, will you back the occupation, did you know before staff did, what about the second wave of cuts, and – if it’s you – how does it feel that it’s your course. Deciding live, on air, is how officers end up in screenshots.
