For?Coventry University vice-chancellor John Latham, the Midlands-based institution represents more than just a higher education provider: it is part of his personal story.?

Having attended Coventry for both his undergraduate degree in computer science and his MBA,?Latham later returned to work at the institution for more than 29 years, 14 of which he has spent as vice-chancellor.

But his three-decade stint has not been without controversy. Earlier this year, thousands of people signed a petition calling for Latham to be removed from a government position over his handling of Coventry¡¯s finances.

Soon afterwards, the university published its annual accounts,?revealing?a pre-tax deficit of ?59.3 million last year. At the time, auditors questioned the institution¡¯s future, saying a ¡°material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group and university¡¯s ability to continue¡±.

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Student numbers at Coventry¡¯s home campus have fallen 24 per cent per cent over the past four years ¨C from 35,350 in 2019-20 to 26,605 in 2023-24. While these declines have been partially offset by growth at the university¡¯s other UK branches and overseas outposts, total student numbers remain?6 per cent lower than they were before the pandemic.?

Latham told 51³Ô¹Ï that the university is looking to adapt to a changing higher education landscape, and is planning to use about ?95 million of its reserves to reform the institution and grow student numbers. ¡°Reserves are there for a rainy day and it¡¯s been pouring outside for about a year and a half now.¡±

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¡°A number of institutions have been using what reserves they¡¯ve got waiting for the government to do something¡­ they¡¯d been waiting since 2017 for the fee to go up,¡± he said. ¡°You can¡¯t rely on the government to fund change.¡±

As part of the current transformation programme, Latham claims Coventry has pursued ¡°three years of change in one year¡±. The institution recently announced that it would be moving towards a block teaching model at its main campus, after having already implemented this approach at its campuses in Scarborough and London, where?it will welcome six intakes a year.

The university is also establishing new?branch campuses in India?and Kazakhstan, adding to a growing roster of overseas outposts in countries including Egypt, Poland and Morocco.

However, in a bid to adapt to a ¡°new financial reality¡±, some 250 full-time UK roles are at risk of redundancy, with this being partially offset by the creation of 185 jobs elsewhere in the group, to which staff are able to apply.

Some employees have claimed that this practice amounts to ¡°fire and rehire¡±, because those who are successful in their applications for the new roles will be employed through a subsidiary firm,?Peoples Future Limited. This means they will no longer be eligible for the Teachers¡¯ Pension Scheme (TPS), receive fewer annual leave days in some cases, and might not be eligible for union membership.?

Staff have described the?move as?¡°not illegal but immoral¡±, but from Latham¡¯s perspective, it is a by-product of the radical transformation the university is pursuing in a bid to ¡°modernise¡±.

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He said staff at the university have been employed through subsidiary firms since 1989.

¡°A number of people are saying, ¡®Oh this is fire and rehire¡¯. It¡¯s not actually. These are completely different jobs. We¡¯re looking for them to be involved in teaching in a different way. The way in which the delivery of that teaching takes place is different...the career paths are different. It¡¯s a very different way in which we are delivering the education profile for the students.¡±

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While it is a statutory requirement for post-92 universities to offer staff the TPS, which includes an employer contribution rate of 28.68 per cent, Coventry ¨C alongside other British institutions ¨C has begun employing staff via subsidiary firms in a bid to avoid the pension costs. Latham said that he, and many other members of the senior management team, are no longer themselves on TPS, and argued that the pension scheme makes post-92s ¡°anti-competitive¡± and ¡°completely unaffordable¡±. ¡°28 per cent ¨C it¡¯s a dream,¡± he said.

A raft of government legislation is piling additional costs on universities, and Latham noted that employer increases to TPS contributions ¨C which rose by 5 per?cent ¨C have cost Coventry an additional ?5.5 million, while hikes to employer national insurance contributions?have cost the university an additional ?6 million. A proposed levy on international student tuition fees, announced in the government¡¯s recent immigration White Paper, ¡°is likely to cost us ?12 million. So that¡¯s ?25 million in additional cost, and we¡¯ve done nothing.¡±

The university remains optimistic about its financial position, though. According to Latham, financial forecasts suggests Coventry will reach a ¡°broadly break-even position¡± in the financial year starting 1 August 2025.

Is the university¡¯s plan to spend big to grow its student numbers a gamble? No, claims Latham. ¡°It is obvious that if we don¡¯t hit student number targets, it makes it harder for us to hit revenue targets. This puts pressure on our ability to hit the broadly break-even position and would mean we need to generate more non-student income or reduce spending to plug the gap¡±.?

But Coventry has seen ¡°encouraging growth¡± in its January and May intakes, and its September recruitment ¡°is currently looking stronger than we had envisaged¡±, he said. However, growth is ¡°not equal across our UK locations and so we may need to continue to resize the group to ensure our people and resources are in the locations where our students want to learn¡±.

He continued, ¡°The higher education landscape is changing rapidly in every sense. The gamble is to carry on doing the same thing and hope it all works out OK.¡±

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This gets to ¡°the heart of the problem¡± with the sector for Latham, who believes universities need to become increasingly agile and responsive to student needs. ¡°People are always wary of change but where you¡¯ve got things that have not changed, they¡¯ve always been the same, and then people get comfortable. And that¡¯s the challenge for the sector.¡±

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com