Dundee University staff in new strike row over job cuts



A serious financial crisis has enveloped the university over the last year, leading to the departure of several key senior managers, including Principal Iain Gillespie and chief operating officer Jim McGeorge. 

Reports of a £35 million black hole emerged last November, leaving hundreds of staff fearing for their jobs. 

Former Dundee principal Iain Gillespie stepped down late last year.Former Dundee principal Iain Gillespie stepped down late last year. (Image: Newsquest) Now, UCU members want to take further industrial action, after a plan by the university’s management, which would have resulted in 220 voluntary redundancies and 170 compulsory cuts, was rejected by the Scottish Funding Council. 

A plan to shed 300 jobs via voluntary redundancy had been previously approved by the regulatory body. 

Melissa D’Ascenzio, branch co-president, said staff and students had been let down.

She said: “Senior management’s failings at the University of Dundee have been laid out in the media and the Gillies report for all to see, in a way that would have seemed unbelievable a year ago.  

“It’s wrong that uncertainty and the threat of job cuts continue to loom over staff at a time when the university’s finances have been stabilised by the intervention of the Scottish Funding Council and all efforts should be directed towards co-creating a credible and sustainable path to recovery that includes staff and students’ voices.  

D’Ascenzio added: “Strike action is always a last resort, but staff at the University of Dundee have proven that they will take action to protect jobs and the future of the university.  

“Sadly, with the failings of senior managers over the past year and before, we’re having to run this re-ballot to extend our mandate for action.  I’m confident that, once again, staff and UCU members will do what’s right for the university and for our students.”

UCU General Secretary Jo Grady added: “It’s scarcely believable that after almost a year, with the university on its third principal in that period, the university remains in crisis and staff are having to be balloted again to save jobs and secure the future of the university.  

“The fact that university senior managers have again reverted to their default position of compulsory redundancies means that we need this ruled out once and for all.  

“The only way to force senior management’s hand on this is for UCU members to again deliver a resounding ‘yes’ vote in this ballot.”

UCU General Secretary Jo GradyUCU General Secretary Jo Grady.In June, an independent report commissioned by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) found that senior management had displayed “poor financial judgement, inadequate management and reporting, poor monitoring of the financial sustainability key performance indicator, and  a lack of agility in responding to a fall in income”.

The review, which was led by former Glasgow Caledonian University principal Pamela Gillies, stated:  “Despite very considerable financial pressures and challenges affecting the sector in Scotland, the University of Dundee is the only one of the nineteen Universities and specialist institutions to have suffered a financial collapse.

“Failings were compounded by the top-down, hierarchical and reportedly over-confident style of leadership and management, a lack of transparency and clarity in respect of financial data, the promulgation of a positive narrative around financial matters and a culture in which challenge was actively discouraged.”

Responding to the damning investigation, Interim Principal Nigel Seaton said: “It was evident from the Gillies report that there had been clear failings in financial monitoring, leadership, and governance at the university.

“The entire UK higher education sector has been forced to deal with significant external factors in recent years but our university’s response to these, and its management of finances, fell well short of the standards that everyone should have expected.”


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The institution’s funding plan, which would have seen a total of additional 400 job cuts and the sale of four university-owned properties, was rejected by the SFC, who have proposed an alternative strategy. 

The rejected document reads: “Currently, the university is unable to secure any additional commercial funding through a commercial bank and is therefore very reliant on the support from the Scottish government which may have to be brought forwards to help support cashflow whilst the plan is matured and set in action.”

A Dundee University spokesperson said: “We are in continuing dialogue with the Scottish Funding Council regarding a recovery plan for the University.”


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