I got a call from my pal who works at Dundee University, just after they’d announced their grim proposals for massive job losses.
He was incandescent with rage and no wonder.
The grim prospects facing him and his colleagues are truly shocking.
And I share my mate’s anger at the folk who’ve taken the university to the brink of near oblivion.
Professor Shane O’Neill, Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor, told The Courier that the possibilities facing the institution have ranged from sweeping redundancies, to downsizing and merger, and worst of all the nuclear option of complete closure.
‘Those who have overseen the carnage should hang heads in shame’
My pal and more than 600 others are now in limbo wondering if their heads are on the chopping block.
He tells me the feeling of anger and fear in the place is overwhelming.
Those who’ve overseen the carnage about to be unleashed with such massive potential job losses should hang their heads in shame: in fact there’s a strong argument for saying none of them should ever find a place in any educational sector capacity again.
Their financial profligacy threatens the jobs of hundreds and has deeply damaged and tarnished the university’s reputation.
The situation is even worse than first thought.
As well as the £35 million deficit for this year there is a £63m recurrent structural deficit.
The £15m of assistance which the Scottish Government had promised – through the Scottish Funding Council – won’t touch the sides as it is swallowed up by the massive financial black hole which management have dug the university into.
But grim though the proposed current job cuts are, there are even worse potential outcomes according to Professor O’Neill.
Of breaking the university up, he says: “We’re trying to avoid that but it is a reality that if we don’t succeed in delivering a full recovery, we could be facing that kind of scenario.”
And to compound an already brutal situation, scenario C according to O’Neill “is the least palatable of all for the city, and for everyone who wants anything good for this university, which is that we just cease to exist.”
He stresses these are not hypothetical examples – these are real outcomes potentially.
The shambolic nature of how the university has been mismanaged and taken to the brink of catastrophe is laid bare in the proposals for a sustainable future set out to staff.
It admitted the announcement in November 2024 that the University faced a £30m deficit was compounded by – among other things – inadequate financial discipline and control, poor capital planning and investment decisions, and weak compliance in financial control policies and lack of accountability.
In other words, it was incompetent, incoherent, institutional incapability on a colossal scale.
20% of staff are now expected to pay the price for managerial mismanagement with their livelihoods, and in the current climate not many will walk easily into alternative employment.
‘Would you trust those who caused university crisis?’
The potential for a fire sale of university assets such as property, both physical and intellectual, is also part of the rescue plan.
Flogging off assets is likely to be much less beneficial when the seller is financially distressed as is the case here.
The university will hold fewer cards if it is looking to cash in quickly than it would if it was selling off such assets at its leisure, and in a less challenging economic climate.
And they will be at the mercy of their professional advisors to get the best deals possible.
Because let’s face it, who would put any trust in the folk who have taken the institution to the brink of ruin to negotiate decent deals with the sort of savvy operators who will be circling their saleable assets like hungry piranha smelling blood in the water?
What kind of university might emerge after the slash-and-burn tactics envisaged is anyone’s guess, but short to medium term the damage done to the reputation and future prospects of the institution are incalculable.
The importance of the university to a city of Dundee’s size can’t be overstated.
As a former law graduate and rector I have a deep affinity for my old Alma Mater, and as a Dundonian, I know the huge difference it has made to so many lives of folk in the city and beyond.
Every effort urgently needs to be made by those in power to alleviate this calamitous situation, and the potentially ruinous effects facing so many staff and students.
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