University and College Union comment on the publication of the Gillies report into the financial crisis at Dundee University

Commenting following the release of the Gillies report into the financial crisis at the University of Dundee, Mary Senior, Scotland official at the University and College Union, said: "I thank Pamela Gillies for this report and for her hard work, particularly given the scale of the task and the need for urgency.  Whilst it will take time to properly consider the report's findings, what they mean for the university's future, and to ensure that we never find ourselves in the same situation in Dundee, or in any other Scottish university,  it's clear that there were abject failings in senior management at Dundee.  We look forward to hearing more from the senior managers who have now left the university's employment next week at the Education, Children and Young People committee in the Scottish Parliament.  It is right that their actions are subject to appropriate scrutiny.

"Given the clear failings of management, it should not be staff and students that are left to pay the price in cuts to their jobs and cuts to education.   We are clear that the university should now commit to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies. 

"It is also evident that the governance arrangements at Dundee were not robust enough to provide sufficient scrutiny and challenge to the university principal and senior managers.  The damning conclusions on the culture of the university compounded this problem.  We need to ensure that people joining university governing bodies are independently minded and willing and supported to, when necessary, challenge decision makers.   Senior managers need to be receptive to challenge.

"There is another element where the Scottish Government has questions to answer.  Universities have been forced to seek income from risky activities, such as over-reliance on international student fee income, as a direct result of the chronic underfunding of Scottish higher education over at least the past decade.  Rather than gambling on fluctuations in overseas countries' economies, universities should be able to rely on stable public funding that supports them to deliver the public good of education, teaching and research carried out in Scottish universities."

Carlo Morelli, spokesperson for University of Dundee University and College Union (UCU) branch said: "This report pulls no punches in attributing blame where it lies.  With more resignations from the university's leadership group today, it's clear that the university's former management is responsible for leading the university into this mess.  New leadership at Dundee university is desperately needed and it is vital that it has the confidence and support of both staff and of students.  Scottish higher education has a history of democracy within management structures, and with the vacuum at the top of the institution, we need to be able to demonstrate that new senior managers have the support of staff.  The university needs to look at the election of a leadership that staff can get behind and which is committed to resolving the current situation without the use of compulsory redundancies."