Dundee Uni: Time for management to finally listen

A new chapter in the long running dispute over the future of the University of Dundee opens as the 2025-2026 term begins.

August saw the beleaguered university management put forward a plan to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) that would see more jobs go than in previous proposals.

The Scottish Government and the SFC have rejected the suggested approach being put forward by the interim Principal Nigel Seaton. But as yet there has been no meaningful response to this. As a result the Dundee University College Union (UCU) branch will ballot for strike action.

Over the last year the university has seen senior management appear at the Scottish Parliament's Education Committee. Resignations and departures have been constant. Iain Gillespie, Shane O'Neill and now Nigel Seaton have tried to respond to the £35 million deficit but - as yet - sustainability appears a distant prospect. 

Provocatively compulsory redundancies are part of the newest proposal. It is this that UCU are balloting on. Opposition from the University Court, the university's governing body has been ignored. As has the student voice represented by Tanaiste Custance (pictured) as student president and Maggie Chapman MSP as rector. Both oppose the cuts and the direction the university management are going in.

Sadly, none of this is new. The common approach of those managing universities in Scotland and across the rest of the UK has been one of putting business interests ahead of educational endeavour and anecdotal information action would suggest that management teams in other universities are using the spectre of Dundee as a way to justify cuts in their contexts. The University of the West of Scotland and Robert Gordon University (RGU) will see action on jobs later this month, Napier University faces job cuts, but the situation at Dundee is unique in its scale, the attitude of management and the potential impact. Sadly, the future of the university is at stake. 

As students return to campus, a diminishing number of staff will be under tremendous strain. Many have already gone. One of Dundee's key employers and one of Scotland's  oldest educational institutions is being gambled with. Management arrogance remains a consistent problem. UCU, and alongside them Unison and Unite, have long highlighted the dangers of managers that won’t listen to staff and students. Politicians have been warned of this situation for years.

Dundee, the Scottish Government, the STUC, the Scottish Funding Council, the campus unions and importantly the university’s students have all spoken. It is time for those collecting the big wage packets to finally listen. And if they won’t, it is time for politicians to take the lead. Building support for Dundee UCU is essential in ensuring that listening happens and a different democratic course of action is taken this time. 

Published 6 Sept 2025.