University of Aberdeen has undergone a Governance Efficiency Review amid concerns of the financial stability and internal relational structure of the University.<\/p>\n
The report<\/a> highlights many key areas of concern following interviews with staff and members of Senate and Court.<\/p>\n The review, externally conducted by SUMS, a higher education consultancy firm, found that there were worrying signs of inefficiency and tension between different ranks of staff.<\/p>\n Senate members experienced \u201cintimidating behaviour,\u201d which had become normalised and confidence has been widely lost for Senate to \u201ccontribute to key areas.\u201d<\/p>\n The review strongly advises that Senate, which is described as “toxic”, should seek an independent and in-depth review to help fix the broken relationships between Senate, the Senior Management Team, and Court. It also suggests that Senate should \u201cclarify authority\u201d and promote a more rigid structure.<\/p>\n A poor culture and lack of clarity within the University are emphasised throughout the report. This has been reiterated by staff employed by the university. In a recent meeting of the three staff trade unions (Unison, Unite, and UCU), representatives voiced their concerns about being left out of the planning for the new financial scheme, Adapting for Continued Success (ACS). \u201cThere is no transparency. They have totally left us out of ACS,” a representative of Unison stated.<\/p>\n This review comes to light at the start of Principal Pete Edwards\u2019 tenure. The review has outlined different ways the university needs to improve to create a better culture, streamlining processes, and cultivating a better experience for staff. Professor Pete Edwards holds many positions within the ACS scheme, with the review looking at the scheme as being integral to addressing the issues highlighted.<\/p>\n Many staff have spoken out against the university, and have highlighted concerns over culture. One unnamed source told<\/a> The Herald<\/i>: \u201cStaff are demoralised, over-worked and anxious about their jobs. I\u2019ve never seen it so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Principal George Boyne was often criticised for cultivating a bad staff environment. In 2023, Boyne came under fire for saying that he wanted striking staff members to feel financial \u201cpain along the way,\u201d for a boycott of assessment and exam marking. Staff members at the time commented that \u201cGeorge Boyne should apologise unreservedly, both to his own staff, and to UCU members across the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n However, there were parts to be proud of for the University. The review cites that there are \u201cexcellent examples\u201d of chairing meetings and participation within committees. It also states that the governance team is \u201cwidely regarded as a source of excellent advice.\u201d<\/p>\n The review calls on the university to undertake \u201curgent\u201d independent reviews, and implement \u201ca change program\u201d to address the strained relationships between SMT, Senate, and Court. It also encourages senior leaders to \u201cmodel openness and humility, including acknowledging mistakes and learning from them.\u201d<\/p>\n I also suggests a review into the size of Court \u201cto address concerns about its composition and operational efficiency,\u201d after highlighting that Court often spilled into committee meetings.<\/p>\n A University of Aberdeen spokesperson told The Gaudie:<\/i> \u201cWe commissioned an independent report to review the efficiency of our governance arrangements. The aim was to help streamline our governance framework to make us more agile as an institution and better able to respond to the challenges of the higher education sector. The University community has been engaged in this process and the findings have been shared across the institution. We look forward to taking the recommendations forward with our community as part of our new Adapting for Continued Success programme.”<\/p>\n The full version of the September 2025 Governance Efficiency Review \u2013 Final Report can be accessed by clicking here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" University of Aberdeen has undergone a Governance Efficiency Review amid concerns of the financial stability and internal relational structure of the University. The report highlights many key areas of concern following interviews with staff and members of Senate and Court. The review, externally conducted by SUMS, a higher education consultancy firm, found that there were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":6400,"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":115,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[254,206,1232,1346,1538,1190,1319,183],"wf_post_folders":[181],"class_list":{"0":"post-6397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-aberdeen","9":"tag-aberdeen-university","10":"tag-george-boyne","11":"tag-governance","12":"tag-report","13":"tag-senate","14":"tag-staff","15":"tag-university-of-aberdeen"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Innes Paton","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/innespaton\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/University-Senate-in-session-Photo-Fred-Byrne-300x135.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Aberdeen<\/a>","Aberdeen University<\/a>","george boyne<\/a>","Governance<\/a>","report<\/a>","senate<\/a>","staff<\/a>","University of Aberdeen<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Aberdeen<\/span>","Aberdeen University<\/span>","george boyne<\/span>","Governance<\/span>","report<\/span>","senate<\/span>","staff<\/span>","University of Aberdeen<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 9 months ago","modified":"Updated 9 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 7 November 2025","modified":"Updated on 7 November 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 7 November 2025 16:36","modified":"Updated on 7 November 2025 17:08"},"featured_img_caption":"University Senate in session (Photo: Fred Byrne)","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6397"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6406,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions\/6406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6397"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}