Staff at the University of Dundee have spoken of their ¡°elation¡± at the release of a ¡°damning¡± report that blamed management failures for its financial crisis.?

Dundee employees spoke of feeling ¡°vindicated¡± by the report published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) on 20 June, which identified a ¡°hierarchical and over-confident¡± leadership style at the university.?

The SFC was forced to step in earlier this year, providing ?22 million of bailout funding in response to a ?35 million shortfall. It then launched an external investigation led by Pamela Gillies, former vice-chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, who authored the report.

The report found that members of the university executive group, which included the former principal Iain Gillespie, Shane O¡¯Neill and ex-chief operating officer Jim McGeorge, had ¡°failed¡± to disclose the extent of the financial crisis to other university officials.

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O¡¯Neill, who was appointed interim vice-chancellor in December, stood down yesterday, saying that he was ¡°truly sorry¡± for the impact of the financial crisis.

Carlo Morelli, senior lecturer of economics at Dundee¡¯s School of Business and University and College Union committee member, said that the report ¡°vindicated everything we¡¯ve been saying for the past seven months¡± about concerns over the university¡¯s finances and lack of transparency from its management team.?

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¡°Staff stress levels and anger have just been off the scale, and we¡¯ve had staff who have been made seriously physically unwell over the past few months,¡± he told Times Higher Education.

¡°But yesterday, I think there was a feeling of euphoria, because members of staff finally knew what they suspected all along.

¡°The morale of staff has been incredibly angry and bitter, but now it¡¯s united. And it¡¯s united around the knowledge that, in a sense, the university yesterday was returned to the people who it actually belongs to: the staff and the students.¡±

Lewis Miller, lecturer in international politics at Dundee, added that the report ¡°confirms what many staff have argued for years¡±,?that mismanagement has resulted in ¡°hundreds of staff losing their jobs¡±.

¡°While the Gillies report will not bring those jobs back, the report and resignations must be the beginning of a new direction for the university,¡± he said.?

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Concerns are now turning to the future of the university. It was announced on 20 June that Nigel Seaton, who joined Dundee in May as interim provost, has been appointed interim principal and vice-chancellor ¡°on a short-term basis¡±. He was previously one of Scotland¡¯s longest-serving university leaders, having joined Abertay University in 2012 and serving as principal until 2022.

Angela Daly, chair of law and technology at Dundee¡¯s Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, said: ¡°Given that [O¡¯Neill] is the third principal in a row to resign from Dundee in disgrace, we urgently need new, democratic governance of the university by staff, students and the wider community who care about and have a stake in the institution and its future¡±.?

Morelli said union members are calling for a new democratic management structure where senior management members are elected.?

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¡°Staff have to be engaged in the process of reorganising the university. It can¡¯t be a top-down approach¡­Staff need to have confidence in the management team, and that will only happen if there¡¯s elected positions.¡±

Miller added: ¡°The executive group needs to immediately move to institute a culture that both listens to and engages with the wider university community in making its decisions. We cannot go back to a top-down culture that does not work.¡±

In the meantime, the staff and union members have called for all compulsory redundancies to be taken off the table. ¡°Staff and students should not pay for management failure,¡± Daly said.?

Ian Mair, deputy chair of court, the university¡¯s governing body, said ¡°it is evident from the report that there have been clear failings in financial monitoring, management and governance.¡±

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¡°While there were significant external factors, which have affected the higher education sector across the UK to varying degrees, the university¡¯s response to these, and responsible management of our finances, has fallen well short of the standards that everyone should have expected."

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com