Resignation confirmed as Abertay Uni row continues

ANOTHER member of the governing body of Abertay University has stood down.

Bob Doak, a director at WL Gore, resigned from the university court yesterday morning, the university has confirmed.

The university has been in turmoil since the suspension of its principal, Professor Bernard King, earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the students' association has called on the management to ensure that the furore over the suspension of Prof King does not have any impact on undergraduates.

The long-running row over the suspension of Scotland's longest serving university principal intensified this week, when Professor Phillipe Baveye, a leading member of the academic staff, branded the university court "amateurish, inept, incompetent and irresponsible" and called for the resignation of its chairman, Nigel Hawkins.

Prof King is refusing to accept university claims that he has retired from his post and has announced that he remains in dispute over the terms of an extension of a contract agreed with the university last year.

Yesterday, as more than a thousand students graduated at the university's summer graduation ceremony, William Mohieddeen, president of the University of Abertay Dundee Students' Association, issued a statement.

He said: "Since the initial suspension of Professor King, the UADSA, under previous president David Currie, had liaised with the university closely and ensured that the affair had no adverse affect on teaching, student learning or student experience at the university during investigations.

"However, the UADSA would like to make clear that we intend to make sure that the student experience at the university is protected and maintained at the current high level."