The announcement was made by vice-chancellor Professor Paul Bartholomew to staff in a meeting on April 2026 15. A 90-day assessment duration with trade unions has considering that begun.
Despite tape-recording a total income of ₤ 304 million in 2025, it posted an operating deficit of ₤ 20.2 m– up from ₤ 5m the previous year. It now forecasts a yearly monetary deficit of approximately ₤ 25m. Records reveal that earnings from worldwide trainees dropped from ₤ 31.65 m in 2024 to ₤ 26.37 m in 2025.
The university’s monetary report stated that the sector “has experienced a substantial recession in global student recruitment due to modifications in visa regulations”.
In 2015’s long-awaited migration white paper outlined significant changes to global student recruitment– consisting of more stringent Standard Compliance Evaluation (BCA) requirements for universities to satisfy, along with a levy to be used to earnings from global charges and a shorter graduate path.
International graduates who apply for a graduate visa on or before December 31 2026 can remain in the UK for 2 years. From January 1 2027, that window reduces to 18 months, and can not be extended. PhD graduates keep a three-year privilege.
The visa limitations intensify a currently constrained domestic financing design.
For the 2025/26 scholastic year, full-time undergraduate home fees in Northern Ireland are topped at ₤ 4,855, compared to the ₤ 9,535 for UK trainees beyond Ireland.
In 2025, Northern Ireland’s 5 universities and university colleges jointly called for tuition fees to rise by more than ₤ 1,000 a year. Economy minister Caoimhe Archibald has actually firmly insisted there will be no boost above the level of inflation, stating she did not want to put additional pressure on trainees.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Archibald indicated comparable financial pressures dealing with universities throughout Britain when asked whether raising tuition costs might have made a difference.
“We have seen thousands of redundancies across universities in Britain where students are charged two times as much in relation to tuition fees,” she stated.
“The typical problem in relation to that is that institutions are not being properly moneyed by the British government in terms of having the ability to deliver,
“We want to have the ability to invest in our universities, because case the executive needs to be correctly moneyed and I will continue to combat that case, alongside with my executive associates, with the British government.”
It has recently been explained to us that a sustainable funding model is not going to be upcoming, and regretfully we should now act to lower our costs
Ulster University representative
In a statement to BBC News Northern Ireland, an Ulster University spokesperson said: “Ulster University has actually looked for to hold back on making redundancies while continuing to deal with the Department for the Economy, through their evaluations, on possible changes to the college financing design in Northern Ireland.
“It has recently been explained to us that a sustainable funding model is not going to be forthcoming, and regretfully we should now act to lower our costs.”
Since early 2026, 105 higher education institutions across the UK were engaged in redundancy or restructuring procedures, according to the University College Union (UCU).
The university has said it wants to accomplish the savings through voluntary redundancies, however has actually not dismissed mandatory cuts. Norman Hagan, chair of the UCU branch at Ulster University, said the union would “highly withstand” mandatory redundancies.