Dundee University: Four Faculties, Zero Consultation

“It is grossly irresponsible from the university management, having burnt away the cash, now determinedly destroying what goodwill and hope for concrete engagement remains”.

Tanaiste Custance, DUSA President

In an all-staff email, Principal Nigel Seaton announced that the University will go ahead with the planned restructuring.

The restructuring will see the current eight schools merge into four faculties:

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
DJCAD (School of Art and Design), Education and Society, Energy, Environment and Society, Humanities, and Law

Faculty of Health
Dentistry, Health Sciences, Medicine, Psychology

Faculty of Science, Engineering and Business
Business, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Forensic Science, and the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification

Faculty of Life Sciences
Life Sciences

Cizzie McGuinness, a 2nd Year Forensic Anthropology student said:

“It’s horrific. It’s all a sham and they are just trying to link together groups that have no correlation to save them money.”

2nd Year Forensic Anthropology

This has been a looming threat for months, since the former Principal Shane O’Neill proposed it earlier this year.

Tanaiste Custance, DUSA President said:

“Any benefit these new arrangements could have had will be outweighed by the damage done by the lack of consent in this process”.

He continued, discussing the financial crisis and the past year:

“After a year of grief and trauma, I am now detecting deep despair amongst staff.
“I think we are at a critical breaking point for the future of the University”.

“Unless the Scottish Government intervenes to ensure that realistic hope is possible I fear that the best days of the University of Dundee will be in the past and not its future.”

Since the annoucnement made by O’Neill earlier this year, students have been left in the dark as to whether this restructure would actually materialise.

Now it has been decided with zero student consultation.

Seaton said,

“For some months, there has been discussion of a reorganisation of the University’s academic activities, into a smaller number of Faculties rather than the current eight Schools, and of our Professional Services”.

Following discussions at several meetings of Senate and meetings within Schools, the new organisational structure was proposed by the University Executive Group and endorsed by the University Court.

It is unconfirmed whether the student representative council were consulted on this possibility, however besides the SRC, the general student populous have been ill informed about this potential, which will severely impact their studies going forward.

DUSA President Tánaiste Custance said:

“The school merger is being conducted without meaningful consultation with either students or staff.

“The Senate was not provided an opportunity to vote on the proposals, which were approved by Court at the tail end of a lengthy discussion on the “recovery plan” which was rejected by the Government. I voted against these proposals”.

In the all staff email Seaton said the university will be moving into an ‘implementation phase’ of the restructure, which will run throughout the academic year.

Its purpose being to “improve the leadership of the University’s academic activities by creating a smaller number of academic units that are directly represented in the University Executive Group, and improving the efficiency of the delivery of Professional Services”.

The email detailed that each faculty will be led by a Faculty Vice-Principal who will be a member of the University Executive Group. An internal recruitment process for these roles have begun.

The announcement also detailed an integrated model for the professional services

“The provision of Professional Services is envisaged as being highly integrated between the ‘centre’ and the Faculties, so that location – while it clearly matters – does not in itself determine the way that services are delivered”.

The creation of the Faculties and the new Directorates will maximise the opportunity for strategic leadership, including the strategic management of resources.

Seaton has entirely sidestepped the real consequences this will have for students. Distorting the narrative, he said that the restructuring will allow for:

“The development of new, more efficient and less bureaucratic business processes across the integrated services, working closely with staff to identify opportunities to work together more effectively”.

With little specificity, Seaton stated that the implementation of this new structure will be ‘in the coming months’.

This is a breaking news story, further announcements will be provided as and when recieved.