Dundee Uni: Support for union members’ action

Members of the University & College Union (UCU) at the University of Dundee embark on further industrial action across Nov 10^th-14^th. Their aim is to prevent compulsory redundancies – and they have support from an increasingly wider section of the Dundee community who are growing concerned at the University’s direction of travel.

Dundee Trades Union Council’s statement on the dispute notes that ‘it is now a year since the institution’s then Principal announced the astonishing appearance of a £35M black hole in its budget. Ever since that game changing revelation, one feature has remained constant; the refusal of the University’s senior management (the UEG) to engage, either with its three workplace Trade Unions (UCU, Unison and Unite) or with its student body, as to how the situation should be addressed.

‘Initial Holyrood investigations and hearings at least saw politicians taking prompts from the workforce in framing their questions to the University’s managers. The Scottish Government even sent back the UEG’s initial ‘Recovery Plan’, primarily due to its, then unacceptable, reliance on over 600 redundancies. In an historical analogy, seeing an adversary ‘sent hameward to think again’ draws initial satisfaction, but sometimes it just entrenches their attitudes and thinking.

‘Despite the regular changes of personnel on the UEG’s side of the table, their continued obstinacy is starting to show worrying signs of bearing fruit. Firstly, there was an identifiable change in the attitudes of both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council towards what ‘Recovery’ looked like, borne out by statements made during the last 6 weeks. And more recently we have seen emerge, again through responses made by members of the UEG, SFC and politicians, a totally different model for what the University of Dundee could look like in the future.

‘Savings made due to the erosion of the employee complement, down over 300 through voluntary departures from amongst a demoralised staff, coupled with increased income from a better than anticipated student recruitment round, seem to no longer count for anything. Their cumulative impact on helping return the University, as we know it, towards operational liquidity no longer appears to be relevant.

‘What is concerning is that the current occupant of the Principal’s chair, along with senior figures in the new-look UEG, appear to have ripped up any plan for getting the current model of the University of Dundee back into shape. They seem to have decided on a new model of a different, much smaller, shape. A University scarcely recognisable from the one which began this journey 12 months ago, with a staffing complement reduced to levels unseen for decades.

‘It is disappointing that our local press, once the scourge of the UEG, give every appearance of having been brought into unquestioning line on the new model. Sadly, so do a number of local politicians. Next week, the SFC will provide the University with tens of millions of pounds of public money. It also has the option of attaching conditions on how this can be spent. Dundee Trades Union Council, along with the staff unions, call on the SFC to impose a condition that prohibits the UEG from using the public’s millions to fund further staff cuts. Dundee TUC also believes that such cuts would merely be a pre-election overture, judged as being publicly digestible ahead of May 7^th but only the first instalment of what we will see subsequently.

‘Throughout the UEG’s various manifestations over the last year, the true nature of its ‘Recovery Plan’ has never been made public and its contents, and implications, have never been shared with the University’s staff and students. Damaging enough, if judged by the collapse in staff morale and their rocketing stress levels, both through increased workloads and the continued uncertainty. But how damaging for our city to be faced with a model of a University which is a shadow of its former self, with, at the end of the plan, maybe a thousand fewer staff at the City’s third largest employer, with all that entails for our local economy, for our shops, restaurants and bars and for future student numbers.

‘Most galling is that this is being driven through by a secretive cabal, riding roughshod over staff, students and over the community in which the University has made its home for the last 144 years.

‘Dundee TUC rejects this downsized model for the University's future and calls on local politicians at all levels, the SFC and Scottish Government ministers to fight to save this once proud institution from those whose apparent intransigence is in danger of being rewarded, by having their plan become a fait a complis’.

Published 8 November 2025

Democratic Left Scotland supporters on Dundee TUC and more widely fully support the efforts of the UCU. For more information on the Trades Union Council’s campaigning, email dundeetuc@ymail.com