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Newport should be given more clarity over the future of higher education in the city, a councillor has said as the University of South Wales (USW) seeks voluntary redundancies.

Cllr David Fouweather said he was concerned about job and course security in Newport amid the university’s ongoing proposals to cut around 200 staff.

The Conservative representative of the Allt Yr Yn ward noted the city’s student numbers had dropped in the past 15 years from 10,000 to around 3,000.

USW, which runs courses in Newport at its campus on Usk Way, said it was not alone in responding to “sector-wide difficulties” including rising costs and changes to international student rules.

It said it had been “open” with staff about having to trim around 200 workers from “targeted academic areas” – but insisted any redundancies would be “entirely voluntary”.

Following the news, Cllr Fouweather asked whether the council leader had spoken with USW leaders “to ascertain if any jobs or courses will be affected at the Newport City Centre Campus on the riverfront”.

Cllr Dimitri Batrouni, the leader, said he was in “regular dialogue” with USW’s representatives, and hoped to meet its recently-appointed vice chancellor, Professor Osama Khan, to “discuss the future plans” for the university in Newport.

But in an attack on Cllr Fouweather’s party, the leader pointed to sector-wide pressures on universities and said: “I know the Newport Conservatives are stuck in the past, but it is troubling [they] have not recognised the world has completely changed, with world changing events taking place in that time, [such as] the Covid pandemic”.

“Comparing student numbers from 2010/11 to 2025/26 does not make any sense,” added Cllr Batrouni. “This would be the same as judging a model in place now in 2041, which clearly would be nonsense.”

Firing back, Cllr Fouweather said he “can understand why the council leader doesn’t want to talk about the past – if he did look back he’d see Labour’s forced ‘mergers’ of universities triggered the closure of the Caerleon Campus”.

“This occurred despite Labour saying no campuses would close,” said Cllr Fouweather. “The number of university students studying in the city has dropped from over 10,000 to around 3,000 in the space of just ten years. This is a serious issue.

“Cllr Batrouni is ducking this and needs to take some accountability for his party’s terrible actions over the last decade.”

Addressing the ongoing voluntary redundancy programme, a USW spokesperson said: “We understand the uncertainty this news will bring to our community. This is not a decision we take lightly and is driven by the aim to protect our long-term financial sustainability. 

“We are now in a consultation period with colleagues and trade unions as we work through delivering the change that is required – whilst remaining committed to delivering an exceptional student experience, advancing high-impact research, and safeguarding the future of our institution as Wales’s leading widening-participation university.”