Uni plan to cut jobs is ‘last straw’

DUNDEE UNIVERSITY is planning to cut the number of academic staff it employs.

Proposals to set up a voluntary severance scheme will be put to the university court next week.

Management insisted no target has been set for the number of job losses.

However, a university source told The Courier there were fears more than 10% of the current staff could go.

The source said: “The principal, Pete Downes, and his vice-principals have drawn up plans to make about 150 academic staff redundant.

“He is doing this because he is trying to cut costs even though the university has an operating surplus. This is the last straw for me and many others. A lot of people who would normally support Professor Downes are now very angry.”

Professor Downes defended the voluntary severance proposal.

He said: “To deliver our ambitious transformation vision we need to encourage excellence across all academic areas and to be able to invest in our future strategy at a time of unprecedented pressures on public spending and challenging future financial projections.

“Through our operational planning process we are looking to identify opportunities to generate additional income to support investment. However, at this point in our analysis, we have identified that we need to achieve reductions in academic staffing levels across the university.

“While no target has been set at present, we will be making a proposal to the meeting of our governing body to be held on February 17 that the university opens a voluntary severance scheme to academic staff.”