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Dundee University staff strike in long running dispute over jobs and threat of compulsory redundancies

27 January 2026

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) Scotland at the University of Dundee will today (Wednesday) take strike* action in a long running dispute over jobs cuts and the refusal of university management to rule out compulsory redundancies.

The strike, the 26th day of strike action since the then principal announced a shock £35million deficit fifteen months ago, comes as staff are still unclear about management’s plans for the university and its recovery.  The union welcomed the intervention of the Scottish Funding Council last summer that put on hold the University’s plan to cut more than 600 staff.  The most recent plan, submitted to SFC in August, was reported to have 690 staff leaving, 350 through voluntary severance and 340 through a mix of voluntary or compulsory redundancy.

As well as taking strike action, the branch co-chair, Melissa D’Ascenzio, will also be giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People committee on the dispute alongside union representatives from Aberdeen, Strathclyde and Edinburgh universities where UCU is also either in dispute or currently balloting for industrial action.  Following the evidence session in the Parliament members from the Dundee branch will demonstrate outside the Scottish Parliament*.

The union maintained that any proposal including compulsory redundancies is unacceptable and called on the university’s senior management and principal, the third since the crisis at the university began, to finally rule out compulsory redundancies now that the Scottish Government Finance Cabinet Secretary, Shona Robison, announced an additional £20million for Dundee University in the budget two weeks ago.

UCU Dundee branch co-chair, Melissa D’Ascenzio, said:  “We are clear that any new recovery plan must have buy in from staff and students and deliver a sustainable future for the university.  Almost a year and a half since the university was thrown into crisis, we still don’t know management’s plan to rescue the university.  What we know is that there seems to be only one strategy on the table: cutting staff.  The past year has been incredibly difficult for staff and their families.  The most recent announcement of additional money from the Scottish Government is welcome, but what staff and students at the university are calling out for is certainty, and, for the first time in fifteen months, to finally know that their jobs, education, and the university’s future is secure.”

Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said: “The dispute at Dundee is one of the longest running in Scottish higher education history.  Staff have shown their willingness to take action to save jobs but it’s for university management to finally commit to no compulsory redundancies to end this dispute.  I welcome the request by the Parliament’s education, children and young people committee to hear from our members but the politicians need to tell management at Dundee to rule out compulsory redundancies and bring some stability back to a university sector currently in crisis.”

ends 

*Picket lines will be outside the Tower Building at the university, Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4HN between 8.15am and 9.45am.  UCU spokespeople will be available for interview.

*Members from the branch will demonstrate on the concourse outside the Scottish Parliament from 12.30 until 1.30pm. 

contact

UCU Scotland: Murdo Mathison, e: mmathison@ucu.org.uk

UNIONS OPPOSE LATEST UNIVERSITY RECOVERY PLAN

3 September 2025

Last month, the campus trade unions were invited to comment on a draft recovery plan which the University of Dundee submitted to the Scottish Funding Council.

We did so on the basis of confidentiality and have remained silent ever since for this reason – despite our clear misgivings about the plan.

However, we are led to believe that key members of the University hierarchy continue to promote the plan – which would lead to hundreds more job cuts including compulsory redundancies.

Worse, we understand from reliable sources that elements within the University management are claiming to external contacts that we are satisfied with the plan – nothing could be further from the truth.

Instead, we are calling on a fully and properly constituted University Court to do the following:

1 –  Appoint a credible, permanent leadership team capable of taking long term decisions;

2 – Deliver a comprehensive university strategy which utilises the collective wisdom of staff and students;

3 – Understand that the university can only prosper by harnessing the energy and ideas of talented, enthusiastic and experienced staff- not by getting rid of them.

By the end of this month, the University will already have lost a tenth of its staff in just 12 months. We cannot support a plan which proposes to continue with the same approach while at the same time demanding more and more money from the Scottish Government.

The University Court must now take bold action to secure a bright future for the University of Dundee.

Dundee UCU, UNISON and Unite branches

You can read DUCU’s Position Paper rejecting the University Recovery Plan here.