Hertfordshire Closed Its Humanities Degrees in May. In June It Said 200 Jobs Would Go Too.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
In short. The University of Hertfordshire told staff on 23 June 2026 that it needs to cut around 200 jobs across academic, professional services and technical roles to save 20 million pounds in the 2026-27 academic year [1]. It follows a May 2026 decision to close humanities undergraduate degrees for low recruitment. The ledger logs a loss of 200, graded ANNOUNCED, status at-risk, region East of England. AI is not cited anywhere in this story.
A second cut followed a first. In May, Hertfordshire closed its humanities undergraduate programmes, citing low recruitment. A month later, on 23 June, the university told staff the wider problem had not gone away: around 200 academic, professional services and technical posts need to go to save 20 million pounds over the coming academic year [1]. Vice-chancellor Anthony Woodman framed it as unavoidable rather than preferred: "To remain financially sustainable and to continue delivering the high-quality education and students expect, we must take action now" [1].
The university named several pressures rather than one: changes to immigration policy that have reduced international student recruitment, weaker demand in some specific programmes, home tuition fees that have not risen with costs, and rising bills for utilities, estates and employer National Insurance [1]. None of that is unusual among English universities in 2026; what is unusual is how little attention this particular round drew outside higher education trade coverage, next to the much larger figures reported elsewhere in the sector this year.
How the ledger logs it
A loss of 200, graded ANNOUNCED because the source is a staff announcement rather than a concluded consultation or a filing, status at-risk because no later confirmation of a final figure was found. The announcement is more than three months old by the time this ledger logs it. That does not make it a smaller story; it makes it a missed one, caught only once a direct search of the university sector, prompted by wider coverage of this year's higher education job losses, turned it up.
What the university does not say caused it
Nothing in Hertfordshire's own statement, nor in the trade coverage of it, mentions artificial intelligence or automation as a factor behind the cuts. The pressures cited are demographic, regulatory and financial: fewer international students, fees that have not kept pace with costs, and bills that have. The ledger records ai_cited: not-raised.
What happens next in this ledger
No consultation end date or final headcount has been published anywhere checked for this round. That is itself worth watching: a university naming a number in June and then going quiet through the summer is a pattern this ledger has seen before, at Dundee and elsewhere, and it usually means the real figure, when it eventually surfaces, is the one to log as a correction rather than trust the announced one indefinitely. This row will be revisited when a concluded figure appears.
Sources
- University of Hertfordshire to cut 200 jobs in bid to save 20 million pounds, Times Higher Education, 23 June 2026.