A Nobel laureate has challenged the University of Nottingham’s decision to slash staff numbers in its prestigious physics department by a third, arguing that short-term budget difficulties should not lead to cuts in areas of internationally recognised research excellence.

Brian Schmidt, the US-Australian astronomer who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 and was president of Australian National University from 2016 to 2024, said he was unconvinced that the cuts announced in May were necessary given the underlying financial health of the Russell Group university, despite it reporting a £85 million deficit.

“I have been a university president so I looked at the finances,” he told Times Higher Education, speaking at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, an annual scientific get-together in southern Germany, which runs from 28 June to 4 July.

“It seems this university has had some unsuccessful investments but its immediate future is not under threat,” said Schmidt.

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“To divest from an area of academic strength – particularly physics – by getting rid of research staff should be an absolute last resort for an institution. I’m not at all clear that this is a last resort scenario,” he continued.

Even though universities are under pressure to balance their books, it is important to acknowledge that “universities are not companies and should never be thought of as companies”, said Schmidt on the plans to cut 20 posts from the 71-strong workforce of Nottingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy – a move that had led to criticism from hundreds of physicists internationally.

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Referencing Nottingham and related concerns about cuts to physics funding distributed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Schmidt said he viewed this as “major cuts to the UK’s physics research capacity”.

“These cuts are going to lower the sovereign capacity of the UK to do research in physics for generations – you don’t easily get access back to this expertise once it’s gone,” he said.

“The costs will be felt in the country’s ability to compete in high-tech industries and on defence so you need to think about the long-term impact of lowering investment in research, which, by global standards, isn’t that high,” said Schmidt.

A Nottingham spokesperson has previously said that “doing nothing is not an option” and it was “vital that we respond to the changing sector demands to ensure we are sustainable for future generations and continue to deliver world leading teaching and research and an excellent student experience”. The university was contacted for further comment

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More broadly, Schmidt said the cuts to physics funding could be linked to national policies to underfund academic research and rely on income from international student fees to subsidise the shortfall, . Noting the parallels with Australia, where lower international enrolments caused by stricter immigration rules had impacted university research, that financial model used by both countries was likely to cause significant damage, he added.

“The UK, like Australia, has pretended they can escape funding research properly by relying on international student fees. But that income will almost certainly go down over the next decade,” said Schmidt, predicting further job cuts at UK universities in the next few years.

“That’s a mistake as China is doing the opposite – it is massively increasing research capacity in physics because it is prepared to spend money in the relatively short term as they know it will pay off eventually,” he said, adding: “Sovereign research capacity must be funded by the government – you can’t rely on other foreign countries to invest in your research base [through student fees].”

“Australia has done this on steroids and the UK has followed our lead,” said Schmidt, who noted that the two countries have a “passion for sharing bad ideas and not learning from each other’s mistakes”.

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That decision not to invest more in UK research could be traced back to Brexit which, according to some experts, has significantly lowered economic growth since 2016, said Schmidt.

“That was a substantive economy hit to the country and now the UK is having to make savings,” he said, arguing that these cuts threatened Britain’s ability to attract international scientific talent in the way it once had.

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“One of the great strengths of British academic research is that, while not super well funded, it had a capability to assemble an academic community from across the world. That has meant it has been a front of science and knowledge exchange since the Enlightenment. Looking at major cuts to physics makes that capability harder to achieve,” he said.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com