{"id":5623,"date":"2025-06-30T19:16:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T18:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=5623"},"modified":"2025-06-30T19:19:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T18:19:38","slug":"gordon-report-reveals-university-missteps-in-cutting-language-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/news\/2025\/06\/30\/gordon-report-reveals-university-missteps-in-cutting-language-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gordon report\u2019 reveals University missteps in cutting language courses"},"content":{"rendered":"

A University-commissioned review<\/a> has confirmed flaws in how senior management targeted the School of Language, Literature, Music & Visual Culture (LLMVC) in an attempt to address the University\u2019s financial difficulties.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the Senior Management Team (SMT) had announced<\/a> 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<\/a> on campus and international reaction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The review was researched and written by Professor Greg Gordon, Head of School of Law, as a \u2018lessons learned\u2019 exercise.<\/p>\n

This comes as Dundee University published its own<\/a> \u2018Investigation into financial oversight and decision making\u2019 prompting three of its senior managers, including their Principal, to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to a public executive summary of Aberdeen\u2019s Gordon report, \u201cno-one was of the view that faced with the same set of circumstances they would do things the same way again.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsufficient critical thought was given to whether a formal change management process (CMP) was necessary and appropriate\u201d even as \u201cthe financial situation within the University and LLMVC was such as to merit some form of intervention by SMT.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecision making at the point of deciding to launch a CMP was hurried, unstructured and dominated by immediate financial considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

At some stages there were \u201cinsufficient mechanisms for engagement with and input by staff and students, or for the taking-in of expert external advice\u201d finds the Gordon report.<\/p>\n

A majority of the review continues to be kept private by the University. The Gaudie<\/i>\u2019s requests for publication of the full report have been repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n

Recommendations of the report include standardising how financial information is shared within Schools, affording \u201cany academic unit which has been identified as requiring improvement or intervention [\u2026] an opportunity to itself address the issues of concern through a \u201cbottom-up\u201d consultative process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, \u201cany academic unit identified as requiring improvement or intervention should be afforded an opportunity to itself address the issues of concern through a \u2018bottom-up\u2019 consultative process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the report identified the need \u201cto facilitate student participation by recognising and mitigating the burden imposed on student representatives\u201d by, for example, providing financial compensation for missed shifts of paid work, or allowing student representatives to nominate a delegate.<\/p>\n

Students\u2019 Union Vice President for Education Miles Rothoerl said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that lessons are learned from the way in which the University sought to cut the provision of modern languages. We\u2019re pleased that a detailed process was carried out through this review and that this included a range of student input.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff union UCU Aberdeen commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019re 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..\u201c<\/p>\n

A University of Aberdeen spokesperson said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full versions of the Executive Summary and Recommendations sections of Greg Gordon’s review can be accessed by clicking here (shared by UoA with The Gaudie<\/em> in June 2025).<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":5625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":227,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[254,200,1281,1232,1276,1280,678,679,1278,1277,1279,183],"wf_post_folders":[181],"class_list":{"0":"post-5623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-aberdeen","9":"tag-ausa","10":"tag-chris-collins","11":"tag-george-boyne","12":"tag-greg-gordon","13":"tag-karl-leydecker","14":"tag-modern-languages","15":"tag-save-uoa-languages","16":"tag-school-of-language-literature-music-visual-culture","17":"tag-senior-management-team","18":"tag-ucu","19":"tag-university-of-aberdeen"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Fred Byrne","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/marketing\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Photo-by-Josh-Pizzuto-Pomaco1-300x225.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Aberdeen<\/a>","AUSA<\/a>","chris collins<\/a>","george boyne<\/a>","greg gordon<\/a>","karl leydecker<\/a>","modern languages<\/a>","save uoa languages<\/a>","School of Language Literature Music & Visual Culture<\/a>","senior management team<\/a>","UCU<\/a>","University of Aberdeen<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Aberdeen<\/span>","AUSA<\/span>","chris collins<\/span>","george boyne<\/span>","greg gordon<\/span>","karl leydecker<\/span>","modern languages<\/span>","save uoa languages<\/span>","School of Language Literature Music & Visual Culture<\/span>","senior management team<\/span>","UCU<\/span>","University of Aberdeen<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 1 year ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 30 June 2025","modified":"Updated on 30 June 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 30 June 2025 19:16","modified":"Updated on 30 June 2025 19:19"},"featured_img_caption":"Photo by Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5623"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6404,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623\/revisions\/6404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5623"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}