A University-commissioned review has confirmed flaws in how senior management targeted the School of Language, Literature, Music & Visual Culture (LLMVC) in an attempt to address the University’s financial difficulties.
In 2023, the Senior Management Team (SMT) had announced that the school of LLMVC would face staff redundancies and major funding cuts, with single honours language degrees being temporarily slashed. The move provoked protests on campus and international reaction.
The review was researched and written by Professor Greg Gordon, Head of School of Law, as a ‘lessons learned’ exercise.
This comes as Dundee University published its own ‘Investigation into financial oversight and decision making’ prompting three of its senior managers, including their Principal, to resign.
According to a public executive summary of Aberdeen’s Gordon report, “no-one was of the view that faced with the same set of circumstances they would do things the same way again.
“Insufficient critical thought was given to whether a formal change management process (CMP) was necessary and appropriate” even as “the financial situation within the University and LLMVC was such as to merit some form of intervention by SMT.
“Decision making at the point of deciding to launch a CMP was hurried, unstructured and dominated by immediate financial considerations.”
At some stages there were “insufficient mechanisms for engagement with and input by staff and students, or for the taking-in of expert external advice” finds the Gordon report.
A majority of the review continues to be kept private by the University. The Gaudie’s requests for publication of the full report have been repeatedly denied.
Recommendations of the report include standardising how financial information is shared within Schools, affording “any academic unit which has been identified as requiring improvement or intervention […] an opportunity to itself address the issues of concern through a “bottom-up” consultative process.”
Further, “any academic unit identified as requiring improvement or intervention should be afforded an opportunity to itself address the issues of concern through a ‘bottom-up’ consultative process.”
Additionally, the report identified the need “to facilitate student participation by recognising and mitigating the burden imposed on student representatives” by, for example, providing financial compensation for missed shifts of paid work, or allowing student representatives to nominate a delegate.
Students’ Union Vice President for Education Miles Rothoerl said:
“It is important that lessons are learned from the way in which the University sought to cut the provision of modern languages. We’re pleased that a detailed process was carried out through this review and that this included a range of student input.
“We’re encouraged that the importance of meaningful student representation is reflected in the recommendations, and we will continue to work hard moving forward to ensure that this is the case.”
Staff union UCU Aberdeen commented:
“We welcome the overdue publishing of the executive summary and recommendation from the Gordon Report. We hope that this serves its purpose and demonstrates that lessons were learned from the debacle of Modern Languages threats. In a time where the university is once again dealing with financial pressures that threaten staff jobs and course provision, we’re calling on University management to demonstrate that they have indeed learned from their past mistakes, and work with staff, not against us, to ensure future of The University of Aberdeen..“
A University of Aberdeen spokesperson said:
“The Review was commissioned by the University to help us identify areas for improvement and meet best practice. We fully accept that there were some missteps during the early stage of the change management process in late 2023 and we took swift action to address this. The Senior Management Team has welcomed the outcomes and fully accepts the recommendations of the Review.”
