Dundee University addresses £35 million deficit with plans to cut 632 jobs

Following the Cardiff University cuts that were announced not so long ago, Dundee University has had to make similar decisions.

Staff were told the news of the plans to cut 632 jobs during a meeting on Tuesday. The number of possible job losses is equivalent to 20% of the university’s workforce of 3,000 people.

The staff and union reaction

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: "It's four months since workers first learned that there was a problem, and it feels that very little has happened in the intervening period to turn the university around."

Ahead of staff cuts being announced, a protest was led outside the university before the meeting on Tuesday.

In support, Unite - who represent the workers at the university - has responded by stating that such redundancies will not be “tolerated”, and that in order to protect jobs all available options will be considered first.

The trade union has suggested that the “very existence” of the university itself is under threat. Despite an additional £15 million given by the Scottish Government to support Scottish universities, more measures were needed in order to save workers at Dundee University.

However, the general secretary at Unite, Sharon Graham, believes “plain and simple” that the “distressing situation” is caused by a fault in the university’s “gross financial mismanagement.”

Poor leadership accusations

The BBC reports that Principal Prof Iain Gillespie told staff in November that job losses were "inevitable" and blamed "an extremely challenging period" for the UK higher education sector.

Yet, Prof Gillespie resigned a month later after news came out of a £7,000 business trip he took to Hong Kong with a colleague, which the university defended.

This lead to staff questioning the fairness of if they were losing their jobs due to expensive trips that the principal had been taken.

Will more universities follow suit?

CEO Today predicted that a 72% financial deficit would occur during the 2025-26 academic year, “with an anticipated total deficit of £1.6 billion across the sector.”

Dundee wasn’t originally listed by CEO Today as a university whose financial issues were well-known, however the recent job cuts hint at the tip of an iceberg full of issues.

The recent issues that are causing job losses and funding cuts are a result of the overall budget decrease in funding for higher education. So, more announcements like that in Dundee, will be expected to appear across the UK as universities struggle to find the funding to pay staff.

The Tab has reported that even Russel Group universities will be making cut-backs on staff.

However, recent evidence of the poor management of the University of Dundee’s finances, could also be a main source of the blame.