Dundee University principal admits prolonged job uncertainty is not fair on staff

The principal of Dundee University has conceded that continued job uncertainty for his staff is not fair, as a new voluntary severance scheme opens in a bid to remove a further 180 full-time equivalent roles.

Nigel Seaton has opened a second redundancy window in a bid to make around £10m in savings.

It comes more than a year after the institution’s financial crisis emerged, which has resulted in a raft of resignations from members of management and forced the Scottish Government to provide a £62m rescue package, which will be paid in instalments over three years.

“I think there’s a lot in the university that I would agree isn’t fair,” said Professor Nigel Seaton.

“Looking at it from a moral point of view is a very reasonable way to look at it. The problems that we’re facing as a university were not caused by staff as a group.

“It was caused by very poor leadership and ineffective oversight by the governing body.

Nigel Seaton has conceded that continued job uncertainty for his staff is not fair STV News

“The staff are a victim of that, so I don’t represent it as being fair.

“What we’re trying to do is ensure the university continues to be there for its students, staff and wider community in Dundee and beyond.

“If the university doesn’t survive, that’s a very unfair outcome.”

Dundee University is currently operating at a loss of around £2m a month. A voluntary severance scheme was first held last summer, which led to the loss of 290 jobs.

But unions believe the number of staff who have left the university since the summer of 2024, a few months before the crisis emerged, is around 800.

Nigel Seaton told STV News he has not yet worked out what size of workforce the university will be able to sustain in the long term.

“The staffing level had risen very substantially in the year or two before that [the emergence of the financial crisis]”

“What we’re trying to do is adjust the staffing level to what would be reasonable for a university of our size and our type.

Asked what’s a reasonable figure, the principal replied: “We haven’t got a figure for that.

“I don’t want to give a vague figure when we’re doing further work. All I can say is we’re doing further work.”

Unions have long campaigned for the threat of compulsory redundancies to be taken off the table. Nigel Seaton said he can’t give that guarantee.

“Having done it once last summer [voluntary severance scheme] and doing it now, with the expectation fewer people will come forward, it doesn’t make sense to do it again in say six months’ time,” he said

“The number of people who might offer might be very small.

“That’s the reason for it, as to what’s foreseeable, I’m not sure, but I don’t think we’ll be having another one in the coming months.”