Why Scottish ministers must urgently investigate Edinburgh University's financial problems

Why did a £140 million hole in the University of Edinburgh’s budget appear so suddenly, wonders Sophia Woodman

Since February, when the University of Edinburgh’s Principal, Peter Mathieson, announced a plan to reduce its budget by £140 million over 18 months, staff and their unions have challenged the need for cuts that are proportionately larger than at comparable universities.

Just last week, the University Senate, the body in charge of upholding academic standards at Edinburgh, sounded the alarm about the damage these cuts would do to our core mission of research and teaching by voting no confidence in the university executive’s financial proposals. In addition, staff in my union voted overwhelmingly to go on strike over these plans.

With as many as 1,800 jobs at risk, unions have asked to see detailed workings underlying the management’s claims that such measures are necessary in an institution that still has a healthy annual budget surplus. Record levels of capital spending are planned this year and next, while planned cuts to the wages bill are disproportionate.

The University of Edinburgh is considering making large numbers of its staff redundant (Picture: Jane Barlow) | PA

Full disclosure required

By law, employers should provide unions with the information necessary to carry out collective bargaining. Where there is risk of redundancies at such a scale, unions need to look into their employer’s finances to assess claims that redundancies are warranted.

Despite repeated requests, staff unions at Edinburgh have not had the required level of disclosure, and we’ve identified many discrepancies in the data we have seen. We’re frequently told, ‘well, this is the information that the University Court has been given’ as an excuse for not showing us more.

Composed of trustees drawn from staff, students and external members, as well as university leadership, the court oversees the university’s finances, and is responsible for ensuring that the institution sticks to its core mission and its responsibilities as a charity.

We believe the court has not been able to exercise adequate oversight, as it is not shown the workings behind budget proposals, or given sufficient information to scrutinise management’s planning. The crisis at Dundee has publicly exposed what can happen when university courts do not carry out due diligence.

As late as last year, Edinburgh’s management was claiming that university finances were healthy. So why is there suddenly a gap of this size to fill, with such urgency? Our analysis shows that mismanagement, including over-ambitious capital spending and assumptions of endless growth in student recruitment, have contributed to the university’s current situation.

Sounding the alarm

Why has the court not held the Principal and senior leaders accountable for these failings? For example, despite cost overruns in the implementation of an enormous IT project, ‘People and Money’, the court’s remuneration committee gave our Principal pay rises. Two key committees in charge of overseeing the university’s capital spending have not published minutes of their meetings for the last five years.

Our university receives significant amounts of public money from the Scottish Funding Council. Staff are sounding the alarm about the future for teaching, learning and research at Edinburgh, as we believe the pace and scale of these cuts could gut an institution that belongs to the people of Scotland.

We call for urgent scrutiny of Edinburgh’s senior leadership by the Scottish Government and Parliament, and for ministers to follow the lead of the Welsh Government, and call on universities to use their reserves to tide them over a difficult period.

Sophia Woodman is president of Edinburgh University’s UCU union branch