The statement was made by vice-chancellor Teacher Paul Bartholomew to personnel in a conference on April 2026 15. A 90-day consultation duration with trade unions has given that started.
In spite of tape-recording an overall earnings of ₤ 304 million in 2025, it published an operating deficit of ₤ 20.2 m– up from ₤ 5m the previous year. It now forecasts a yearly financial deficit of as much as ₤ 25m. Records show that earnings from international trainees dropped from ₤ 31.65 m in 2024 to ₤ 26.37 m in 2025.
The university’s financial report specified that the sector “has actually experienced a significant downturn in global student recruitment due to modifications in visa guidelines”.
Last year’s long-awaited migration white paper described considerable modifications to international trainee recruitment– consisting of more stringent Standard Compliance Assessment (BCA) requirements for universities to meet, in addition to a levy to be used to revenues from international costs and a shorter graduate route.
International graduates who apply for a graduate visa on or before December 31 2026 can stay in the UK for 2 years. From January 1 2027, that window minimizes to 18 months, and can not be extended. PhD graduates keep a three-year entitlement.
The visa constraints intensify a currently constrained domestic financing design.
For the 2025/26 academic year, full-time undergraduate home costs in Northern Ireland are capped at ₤ 4,855, compared to the ₤ 9,535 for UK students outside of Ireland.
In 2025, Northern Ireland’s 5 universities and university colleges jointly required tuition fees to rise by more than ₤ 1,000 a year. Economy minister Caoimhe Archibald has insisted there will be no increase above the level of inflation, stating she did not want to put extra pressure on trainees.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Archibald pointed to comparable monetary pressures dealing with universities across Britain when asked whether raising tuition costs could have made a distinction.
“We have actually seen countless redundancies throughout universities in Britain where trainees are charged twice as much in relation to tuition charges,” she said.
“The typical concern in relation to that is that institutions are not being correctly funded by the British government in terms of having the ability to provide,
“We want to be able to purchase our universities, because case the executive needs to be effectively moneyed and I will continue to fight that case, alongside with my executive colleagues, with the British federal government.”
It has actually recently been made clear to us that a sustainable financing model is not going to be upcoming, and regretfully we must now act to reduce our expenses
Ulster University spokesperson
In a statement to BBC News Northern Ireland, an Ulster University representative stated: “Ulster University has 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 just recently been explained to us that a sustainable funding design is not going to be upcoming, and regretfully we must now act to lower our expenses.”
As of early 2026, 105 higher education organizations throughout the UK were participated 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 not ruled out required cuts. Norman Hagan, chair of the UCU branch at Ulster University, said the union would “highly withstand” obligatory redundancies.