Eva Milne, Connor Bertie, Tom Christison.
Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shane O’Neill announced in an all staff email earlier today the proposals which will be included in the financial recovery plan. They key concerns outlined in the email include:
‘The initial £30 million deficit identified for 2024-25 is contributing towards the need to find at least £75 million recurrent improvement in our underlying annual operating position
A proposed new academic structure moving from eight academic schools to three faculties (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; Faculty of Engineering, Science and Allied Health; Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences)
A reorganisation of research into a small number of focused research institutes to minimise institution-funded research
A longstanding structural imbalance, with the scale and intensity of the University’s research profile being significantly greater than can be sustained by the scale of teaching and commercial activity delivered.
We are planning for the sale of assets including property, intellectual property assets and share disposals.
Significant academic and professional restructuring is proposed, with a reduction in staffing of over 600 full-time equivalent posts.'
The announcement comes after a series of UEG resignations, redundancy letters issued, Dundee UCU strike action, and a period of uncertainty for staff and students. This is the first glimpse of a recovery plan and underpins the exact reason staff are taking strike action; they are unfairly suffering due to UEG financial mismanagement.
Although staff redundancies are the centre of the recovery plan, the University are advertising for a ‘transformation director’ who will earn £200,000 over the 12-month period.
One of the key changes proposed is the new academic structure, which will move eight schools under three faculties. The proposed faculty of Arts and Social Sciences questions the future of DJCAD, similarly the combination of schools may result in an overwhelming workload for remaining staff and a lack of attention and help available to students.
Another key element is the downsizing of research and emphasis on teaching and commercial activity. The longstanding ‘structural imbalance’ between the two contradicts the very nature of university institutions, as lecturers typically pursue their own academic research alongside teaching- not the other way around.
The introduction of ‘focused research institutes’ will inevitably decrease research due to a lack of funding, thus the University may lose its status of leading research in many fields, particularly medicine and life sciences.
The ‘inadequate financial discipline and control’ by the UEG has been unchecked for far too long and real structural changes must be enacted. The UEG must be held accountable.
The proposed route to financial recovery plan does not feel like a recovery, it feels like the university is going to become even more unfamiliar. There will likely be a lack of student intake in the coming academic years do the instability at the core of the institution. Nothing beyond a ‘recovery’ has been presented, the future of the university is fragile and in great jeopardy.
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