One of the lowest severance caps we found.
In July 2024 the Executive offered staff an “enhanced package” to leave: four months’ salary at most, plus notice. We found the terms of 30 other schemes at 27 universities. Only one capped payments lower, St Mary’s Twickenham, at three months plus notice in 2024. Two matched Sunderland’s four months, Cardiff in 2020 and Aberdeen’s languages department in 2023. All three paid their maximum after two years’ service; at Sunderland it took more than ten. Sources
Long service barely counted. Someone with 11 years and someone with 30 both got four months. At 54, with 20 years’ service on £35,000, that came to £11,667, where the middle of the other schemes would have paid £24,935. Source
Put in your own numbers
Bars and axis show months of salary for the age, service and salary you choose. White bars: other universities’ schemes, 2022–2026; * marks terms taken from a union branch, the press, or a copy of a university email shared by a union. Sunderland adds notice on top; some schemes include it and some don’t say.
- July 2024
Sunderland paid 2 months’ salary for under 5 years’ service, 3 months for 5 to 10 years and 4 months for over 10, plus contractual notice.
Source: the scheme, section 5 - At the top
Aberdeen, Heriot-Watt and Richmond offered up to a year’s salary. Sussex paid up to 60.5 weeks’ pay and Ulster’s 2026 scheme up to 65.
Aberdeen · Heriot-Watt · Richmond · Sussex · Ulster - Similar universities
Huddersfield and Sheffield Hallam became universities in 1992, as Sunderland did. In 2023 Huddersfield offered eligible staff six months’ salary, and Sheffield Hallam offered academic staff ten.
Huddersfield · Sheffield Hallam
“It was voluntary”
Nobody had to apply. But the size of the offer was the Executive’s choice, and other universities under the same financial pressure chose to offer more.