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New bosses at Dundee University have admitted that management has known for months there may need to be further job losses at the crisis-hit institution. Interim principal and vice-chancellor Professor Nigel Seaton and interim finance director Lee Hamill made the comments during questioning from Holyrood’s education committee on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the Scottish Funding Council warned MSPs that further job losses may be needed at the university, despite 290 members of staff taking voluntary redundancy. In August the university unveiled a recovery plan that included a proposal for 400 extra job cuts, including 170 compulsory redundancies, but this was rejected by the funding council. After the university’s £35 million deficit was revealed last year, more than 600 job losses were originally earmarked. Since then, 245 full-time equivalent roles have been axed. Read The Steamie - our dedicated politics newsletter Prof Seaton described the situation as the “deepest crisis at any British university since World War Two”. MSPs on the committee said the Scottish Government had given the university £62m with the expectation that job losses would be limited to 300. Prof Seaton told them this was “assumed” if there was “an infeasible and unimaginable turn-around in income”. He said: “I’m not sure the university leadership team ever thought it possible without reducing the level of employment at the university. That was the slightly unsaid element from the spring and early summer.” READ MORE: Dundee University given £40m bailout using 'unprecedented' powers He said the university’s management “left open the idea” of capping job losses at 300, but added: “We didn’t think it was feasible that the situation might turn around and we would generate more income and remove the need for any more job losses.” During the evidence session, committee convener Douglas Ross MSP criticised the interim principal for not following the former finance director’s advice to hire PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as an external contractor to carry out analysis of the university’s finances. The investigations were instead done internally. Prof Seaton said: “I am bound by effective use of public money and I felt there was benefit to having the internal team do it if they had the capability, and I feel they did. “That would have been hundreds of thousands of pounds that the university doesn’t have, so I am perfectly happy with that decision. I am not obliged to follow the recommendation of colleagues when there was merit in doing it ourselves.” Mr Hamill also pointed out the university was forecast to lose a further £30m this academic year and £14m the following year, which he said was “not sustainable”. He said it costs around £30m a month to run the university, but the financial crisis means the university cannot borrow money from commercial banks. Mr Hamill said this was impacting on investment in campus infrastructure, as there were two buildings, including a large engineering lab, that were “completely unusable” because of containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). He said: “A lot of work needs to be done on the estate to make it up to standard.” Mr Hamill said getting the university to a financially stable position where it could borrow money would mean bosses were able to reinvest back into the university estate.
