MEMBERS of staff from the University of South Wales’ Newport campus could be at risk of losing their jobs in a cost-cutting exercise.

Across the three locations, including Cardiff and Pontypridd, approximately 140 people – around five per cent – of the work force could be made redundant.

In a statement from the university, concerns over the impending outcome of the Brexit negotiations were cited as a reason for the decision.

A USW spokesman said: “USW is sustainable and financially sound. Although we’ve broadly maintained our UK student numbers, we’re in a market where the overall number of people going to university is reducing, and recruitment from overseas will be affected by Brexit.

“Like many universities, our costs are rising by over three per cent a year while our income is staying the same.

“It means we can’t preserve structures and staff headcount in aspic because, if we did this, the university would, over time, lose its stable financial position.”

“We are not prepared to let that happen because we want to keep investing in staff, courses, and facilities so that we can thrive and compete”, he said.

The university, which was created in 2013 following a merger of the University of Wales, Newport and the University of Glamorgan, and has around 25,000 students enrolled across its three sites.

“We’re proposing to streamline both non-staff budgets and our management structures,” the spokesman added.

“Although the proposed reductions in total represent less than five per cent of the university’s workforce, we know that that this is difficult for staff who are affected.

“We’re offering a voluntary scheme to support colleagues for whom the decision to leave now may be the right time, and because of the desire to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies.

“We’re consulting with our recognised trade unions, and senior managers are meeting personally with the staff whose roles are affected.”

A consultation period of 45 days has now started.

On the redundancies, Dan Beard, the University of South Wales Group UNISON Branch Secretary, said: “Our members have had years of constant restructures, redundancies and uncertainty over long term job security.

“Caerleon campus was closed last year ending our presence in the town. Our branch calls on the University to commit to protecting front line staff and if necessary dispense with the increasing practice of retaining and recruiting highly paid management staff which has been the norm in recent years.

“The union will robustly defend our member’s interests and will be consulting them once the full facts of the proposals are disclosed to consider the next steps that may be necessary.”