TOP bosses at a Scottish university have been criticised in a report examining a dramatic financial crisis at the institution.
Dundee University principals were accused of covering up the true state of the institution’s finances in a report published on Thursday.
It found that senior leaders breached ethics rules, ignored data about the university’s finances and “potentially disregarding the facts”.
Former principal Iain Gillespie (below) came in for particular criticism for ignoring warning signs about Dundee’s perilous financial position in the report, authored by Professor Pamela Gillies.
The report said Dundee University suffered from the following key weaknesses:
- Poor financial judgement
- Inadequate management and reporting
- Poor monitoring of the financial key performance indicators
- Lack of agility by leadership in responding to a fall in income
- Weak governance in relation to financial accountability by the university court
Gillies said that these were the main factors which contributed to the institution’s financial crisis, adding: “Financial oversight was lacking when most needed.”
But she added that the university’s culture made its problems worse, saying: “These failings were compounded by the top-down, hierarchical and reportedly over-confident style of leadership and management, a lack of transparency and clarity in respect of financial data, the promulgation of a positive narrative around financial matters and a culture in which challenge was actively discouraged.”
Professor Shane O’Neill, the interim principal and vice-chancellor, announced he would step aside in the wake of the report’s publication.
He told STV News: “I have done all I can to set the university on a path to recovery, engaging with internal and external stakeholders to find the best way forward. I had hoped that we would be further along that path by now, and it will now be for others to steer that course into the future.
“I am truly sorry for the impact this financial crisis has had on many people, particularly our staff and students.”
Ian Mair, the deputy chair of court, the university’s governing body, said Dundee University’s response to challenges it faced had “fallen well short of the standards that everyone should have expected”.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth (above) said: “It is evident from the findings that there are serious questions which must be answered by the University of Dundee’s management team.
“This is obviously a difficult time for the University but I welcome the decisive action which has been taken with the changes in leadership. It is vital that we now move to a period of stability to ensure the institution can move forward and thrive into the future.”
She said she would update Parliament with a “more detailed” response to the report and future Government support next week.
