Dundee University has axed plans to hire a £200,000-a-year transformation director.
The Courier revealed earlier this month that staff at the institution – which is proposing cutting 632 roles in a bid to plug a £35 million deficit – reacted furiously after the job was advertised.
A recruitment agency had advertised the “interim” role at the crisis-hit university.
The successful applicant was set to be charged with “collaborating closely” with the interim principal Shane O’Neill and other university bosses to deliver its “recovery plan objectives”.
But Mr O’Neill, speaking at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, confirmed the plans had been shelved.
He said: “We won’t be proceeding with that process.”
‘Need for specific skills’
But the Scottish Parliament’s education committee convener Douglas Ross MSP pushed for an explanation on why the six-figure role was thought to be appropriate during the turbulent period.
Mr O’Neill said: “The professional advice we’ve had, and the advice of our court, is that we do need to make sure we bring in someone with these specific skills and expertise, [someone] involved in significant restructuring of organisations, to help us.
“There are gaps in the executive at the moment.
“So the executive is already stretched, but there is a need for some specific skills.”
He added: “We decided last week that it wasn’t right. it wasn’t understood or supported by key stakeholders.
“We were trying to address a skills gap that we feel is there, and we will be thinking of other ways forward now.”
University of Dundee chiefs were given an astonishing three-hour grilling by politicians in Holyrood.
The scale of the turmoil at the institution was laid bare during the evidence session.
Mr O’Neill refused to rule out the possibility of criminality leading to the crisis, while acting court chair Tricia Bey warned the university could run out of cash by June without support from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
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