Dundee University bosses quit after damning report into financial collapse

The principal of Dundee College and two senior members of its governing physique have stop after a damning report into the monetary collapse that led to a £22m authorities bailout.

The independent report said university bosses and its governing body failed multiple times to determine the worsening disaster and continued to overspend as an alternative of taking motion.

It stated the issues have been “self-inflicted” and it ought to have been clear to senior members of the college that its monetary place “was worse than offered”.

The present principal Prof Shane O’Neill and two senior members of the college’s governing our bodies resigned as quickly because the report was printed.

Prof O’Neill took over as interim principal in December however he was beforehand deputy vice chancellor.

BBC Scotland Information understands that Holyrood’s schooling committee is to recall Prof O’Neill to present proof subsequent week following his resignation.

He was recognized within the report together with former principal Prof Iain Gillespie, the chief working officer and the director of finance as one of many college leaders who “didn’t domesticate a tradition of openness and problem in any respect ranges”.

Prof Gillespie, who resigned because the college’s principal in December, was stated to have had an “overbearing management fashion” and a dislike of probably awkward confrontations or questioning.

The report stated he steadily demonstrated hubris – or extreme delight – in his position, which it stated can result in a contempt in direction of individuals who supply criticism – and an obsession with private picture and standing.

Prof Gillespie stood down weeks after he had instructed workers that job losses were “inevitable” as a way to sort out a “vital deficit”.

He blamed “an especially difficult interval” for the UK larger schooling sector.

It later emerged that the college had a £35m blackhole in its funding and it needed to be bailed out with £22m from the Scottish authorities.

The Scottish Funding Council then commissioned an investigation into why the college’s monetary place deteriorated so abruptly.

The unbiased report, led by Prof Pamela Gillies, discovered the principle causes included poor monetary judgement from college bosses and weak governance from the college court docket, which is supposed to carry senior administration to account.

The report discovered that just about £40m of ringfenced cash had been spent elsewhere and there had been “a scarcity of actual motion” to deal with an £8m “gap” because of a fall in worldwide pupil recruitment.

It stated these answerable for the college’s governance ought to have recognized effectively earlier than November final 12 months that there was an issue.

There have been quite a few factors the place “an affordable particular person” may have reached a judgement that the college’s monetary place was worse than offered, it stated.

It then detailed the events when these overseeing the funds did not problem executives on the hole between quickly falling revenue and continued excessive spending.

The report said: “The failure of the college’s monetary governance system was self-inflicted and skilled a number of instances and at a number of ranges.

“This led to a failure in figuring out the worsening state of affairs and never responding early sufficient.”

Within the wake of the report’s publication, Tricia Bey, performing chair of the college court docket, and Carla Rossini, convenor of the finance & coverage committee, left the college with fast impact.

Based on the report the college had a £33.7m enhance in income within the 12 months to July 2023, primarily pushed by progress in worldwide college students and a rise in analysis revenue.

Nonetheless, year-on-year recruitment of abroad postgraduate college students then fell from 1,230 to 393.

The report stated that the college wanted to make £8m of financial savings in 2024 because of this fall in abroad recruitment, however that nothing had been finished to deal with the “inevitable consequence”.

It stated this “set the college up for failure” within the 2025 monetary 12 months.

The report added that this could have signalled “a direct change” within the 2024 budgets and operations.

It added: “Regardless of this decline in pupil numbers and resultant impression on revenues, the college didn’t make vital price reductions, notably round workers prices which account for about 60% of complete prices.”

As an alternative, a message from Prof Gillespie was circulated to workers and college students on 1 March 2024, which stated that the college had improved its resilience, permitting it to “put money into our energy and persevering with on a path of progress”.

The report famous: “This set the tone inside the college for funding and progress at a time when financial savings ought to have been quickly carried out.”

It added: “This was at a time when the Principal was conscious that there was an £8m “gap” within the (2024 monetary 12 months) finances.

“There have been no plans in place to ship financial savings crucial to maneuver right into a surplus place.”

The report stated that regardless of a fall in pupil numbers, there was an inner failure to regulate prices, stating: “There’s little proof that budgets have been meaningfully up to date to mirror altering circumstances.”

The report stated that Prof Gillespie resisted “tough conversations” and that “few dared to talk reality to energy”, with girls specifically discovering it tough to be heard.

It famous: “Feminine members of workers specifically, reported being spoken over, side-lined or mentioned in public as being obstructive in the event that they tried to be heard.”

The report stated that it was obvious there have been “vital issues” from workers in relation to revenue, expenditure and capital spending, however the true image “was by no means put collectively in a single place”.

The report stated better scrutiny, problem and curiosity ought to have been forthcoming and “would moderately have uncovered the worsening state of affairs”.

It famous: “There was no surprising occasion or fruits of surprising occasions past these impacting the sector as a complete. The college was not ‘totally different’.”

In response to the report, Dr Ian Mair, deputy chair of the college court docket, stated: “It’s evident from the report that there have been clear failings in monetary monitoring, administration and governance.

“Whereas there have been vital exterior elements, which have affected the upper schooling sector throughout the UK to various levels, the college’s response to those, and accountable administration of our funds, has fallen effectively wanting the requirements that everybody ought to have anticipated.”

Dr Mair added: “I perceive that this has been an especially disturbing time for workers and college students and I supply my honest apologies for all the nervousness and uncertainty this example has triggered.

“You’ve gotten all deserved higher, and we will solely work to make that the case from right here on.”

He stated the court docket hoped to make an interim appointment of a brand new principal to switch Prof O’Neill within the subsequent few days.

Prof O’Neill stated it was with a “very heavy coronary heart” that he had determined to step apart.

He stated: “I’ve finished all I can to set the college on a path to restoration, partaking with inner and exterior stakeholders to search out one of the simplest ways ahead.

“I had hoped that we might be additional alongside that path by now, and it’ll now be for others to steer that course into the longer term.

“I’m really sorry for the impression this monetary disaster has had on many individuals, notably our workers and college students.”

The Scottish authorities’s Training Secretary Jenny Gilruth stated the findings raised severe questions for the college’s staff.

She stated: “While the college is an autonomous establishment which is in the end accountable for decision-making round its each day operations, the Scottish authorities will do all the pieces potential to safe a optimistic future for Dundee.”

Dr Carlo Morelli, the College and Faculty Union rep, stated it was a “utterly damning report”.

“It vindicates all the pieces the unions and workers have been saying in regards to the mismanagement of the college,” he stated.

Mr Morelli stated the union was now demanding that there must be no obligatory redundancies from the college.

Tanaiste Custance, who was not too long ago elected to be the president of the Dundee College College students Affiliation, instructed the BBC: “It’s stunning to see that for a lot of years there was a failure to ask the precise questions from everybody within the senior management at this college.”

“There was a complete failure of the monetary governance of this establishment going again years.”

Scottish Labour MSP Michael Marra stated: “This devastating report lays naked the monetary vandalism and appalling management that has tipped town’s most necessary establishment into an existential disaster.”

He added: “The report exhibits that the establishment was failed catastrophically by a small group of govt leaders totally out of their depth and cowed by a hubristic Principal who brooked no dissent.”

The Scottish Conservatives’ spokesman for schooling and abilities Miles Briggs stated: “Senior figures have been instructed what they needed to do to get Dundee College right into a sustainable place however they repeatedly did not act, and covered-up the true state of its monetary place.

“The report is scathing in regards to the inexcusable failures by these in management roles. It’s now important that it is a watershed second to make sure no Scottish college will ever face such a state of affairs in future.”

The BBC has tried to contact Prof Gillespie for his response to the report.