Industrial Action Renewed until June 2027
On 9 June 2026, Dundee UCU secured a successful mandate for strike action and Action Short of a Strike (ASOS) for the next 12 months. Our UCU Scotland Official informed the University of Dundee the same day.
78% of our members voted that they would take strike action. 88% of members voted for Action Short of a Strike (ASOS).
Alternative Proposals to UEG’s Recovery Plan
Dundee UCU has published Alternative Proposals to UEG’s Recovery Plan on 18 May 2026. In it we argue that the loss of >700 staff through Voluntary Severance (VS) and attrition, as well as the SFC funding and drastic saving measures, have put us back on the path to recovery. The University is already generating a surplus that is set to increase in the following years, as staff cost savings from the first and second VS scheme are fully realised. Student recruitment for the next academic year looks promising and seems to exceed expectations, adding to a positive financial outlook. Critically, we reject the alternative narrative that the University needs to cut further staff through compulsory redundancies to achieve unrealistic and sector-busting financial targets (10% EBITDA). These cuts would risk causing significant long-term harm to the Institution and may materially impair its ability to recover and fulfil its charitable mission. Members of Court of the University of Dundee are encouraged to ensure that any proposed staff reductions are subject to thorough scrutiny of the underlying financial information, assumptions, and forecasts before approval. Decisions taken without appropriate diligence may expose those involved to significant governance, reputational, and financial accountability, should such measures contribute to a deterioration of the institution’s viability. You can read this plan in its entirety here.
Finance Paper
Dundee UCU has published a Finance Position Paper which analyses the financial forecasts produced by the UoD Finance team in October 2025 and February 2026, challenges the reliability of the data and assumptions they were based upon, and presents an alternative financial forecasting model that shows that the University of Dundee is already on its way to recovery and further staff reductions are completely unjustified. You can read this paper here.
Press Release: 18 May 2026
We are disappointed to learn that a paper that Dundee UCU was invited to submit to Court for inclusion in the Court’s workshop on University’s recovery was rejected without appeal. Court is about to draft a document on the University recovery without having access to a range of pertinent views and information from staff. We are concerned that decisions taken without appropriate diligence may expose the University to further reputational and financial damage.
The exclusion of unions’ views from the workshop is a symptom of unresolved governance issues highlighted in the Gillies report and risks putting the University in breach of SFC’s funding conditions for the £40m of additional funding over this and next academic year. It would appear there is only one narrative open to discussion today at the workshop and that is more job cuts.
Press Release: 9 March 2026
VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN DUNDEE UNIVERSITY EXECUTIVE GROUP
Dundee UCU (DUCU) members have lost trust in the University Executive Group (UEG). Members feel misled and that the employer is not fulfilling its duty of care towards them.
In an emergency branch meeting on Thursday Feb 26, there was a unanimous vote of no confidence in the UEG, particularly in the Interim Principal and the Interim Director of Finance.
DUCU has collated a long list of governance failures between July 2025 and February 2026 that constitute the background of this vote of no confidence which was shared with the SFC. DUCU is still waiting to receive a meaningful response to the issues raised.
In the meantime, the University of Dundee has launched another voluntary severance scheme to cut jobs (180 FTE) in order to reportedly save a notional £10 million. At the same time, thereare 21 Grade 10 (highest salary band) posts being advertised as academic leadership and executive roles, that could have serious financial implications for the institution. Yet this decision has been taken without the oversight or input of Court or any of its Committees.
DUCU is concerned that recent financial updates shared with staff and the opening of the most recent voluntary severance scheme have exacerbated the stress that staff continue to experience, resulting in increased trauma-like responses.
Dundee UCU statement on the recent VS scheme announcement
17 February 2026
Dundee UCU representatives were informed on 11 February 2026 of the opening date of a VS scheme under a confidentiality clause, which did not allow us to consult with members. We had no direct input into the process, nor could negotiate its terms, as the scheme was presented to us after it had already been approved by Court.
DUCU believes that the timing of exits proposed in the current VS scheme will cause massive disruption at a very sensitive time in the academic calendar, when exams, marking, and processing of grades are taking place. This disruption could have life changing consequences for both students and staff, as well as causing irreparable damage to the reputation of the University. Considering that the University of Dundee will be in receipt of an additional £20m of SFC funding this financial year, DUCU has seen no evidence of an immediate threat to the financial stability of the Institution that would justify putting staff and students through such an upheaval at this point of the academic cycle. Furthermore, running a VS scheme during a major restructuring of the University will inevitably compound the chaos.
In addition, the length of time to make decisions and the timeframe between outcomes being communicated to staff and exit days have been significantly shortened, in contradiction to the feedback provided by staff on the 2025 VS scheme, which saw sudden exits and lack of appropriate handover opportunities.
DUCU is disappointed that our concerns on the wellbeing of staff and students have not been taken into consideration by the current University Executive Group, who has made no changes to the VS proposal since it was presented to the unions on 11 February.
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.”
Friday 31 October 2025 – Response to the Education Committee evidence
The Dundee UCU Branch Committee has sent a detailed email to the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee highlighting the discrepancies in the responses by the University of Dundee’s Interim Principal and Interim Finance Director to the Committee at the meeting held on 29 October 2025. Please contact your elected representatives to highlight these discrepancies.
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.
UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE UNION (UCU) SCOTLAND
PRESS RELEASE
Monday 26 May 2025
University of Dundee compulsory redundancy plans result in new wave of strikes
University and College Union (UCU) members at the University of Dundee today (Monday 26th May) begin a further five days* of strike action over threatened job losses and staff facing compulsory redundancy.
The strike action is in response to the University’s failure to comply with the Scottish Government’s resolve that compulsory redundancy should be avoided when providing £22m of emergency funding. Compulsory redundancy is still being pursed in both the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS) and the Educational Assistive Technology unit (EduAT) team at the university.
The first minister has stated on the record that the Leverhulme Centre is’ fundamental to the future of Dundee University’ while the EduAT team is transforming the education of disabled students in the UK and beyond.
Ian Ellis co-president of DUCU said “It is baffling why the Leverhulme centre or EduAT team remains at risk. DUCU is committed to playing a positive role in ensuring a sustainable future for the university, but the use of compulsory redundancies was unacceptable.”
“The announcement at the end of April that, instead of up to 700 jobs being cut, the University is looking to lose 300 staff via a voluntary severance scheme was welcome. However, the threat of compulsory redundancies is still looming over staff at the end of the voluntary severance scheme and there are staff at the University that are currently facing redundancy in the Leverhulme centre and EduAT. We call on the employer to abide by the Scottish Government’s call to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies, and to commit to making any savings through voluntary methods.”
The strike follows 15 days of strikes in February and March. Since then, university senior management, in the face of continued industrial action and criticism from the Scottish Government and local politicians, backtracked on their original plans to cut 700 jobs. Management initially accepted Scottish Government advice, announcing a reduced figure of 300 job losses through a voluntary redundancy process.
Union members were then shocked that staff were still facing compulsory redundancy in both the Leverhulme centre and EduAT.
DUCU said:
“The employer has refused to abide by calls from the Scottish Government, and given jobs are on the line our members felt they had no choice but to embark upon further industrial action. That’s why members will be taking strike action for five days. UCU wants to work for a sustainable future for the university, for students, staff and the city of Dundee, but our members must take a stand against compulsory redundancies”.
Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said: “Some seven months after first announcing that management failures had led to an unforeseen deficit, the fact that staff are still facing an uncertain future with management still unwilling to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies shows the ongoing crisis in the university’s leadership and governance. The intervention of Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council is welcome and essential, but as well as dealing with the immediate crisis at Dundee, we also need to see wholescale revision of governance arrangements at universities to ensure this never happens again.”
University of Dundee: Can a Phoenix Rise from the Ashes?
Please find here the link to the unedited opinion piece by Dr Carlo Morelli on the DUCU’s plan to get the university back on track. A version of this piece was published in The Courier.
Read the Op Ed by Prof. Angela Daly (DUCU Honorary Secretary), published in The Courier, on why she and countless other Dundee staff are going on strike.
You can also find here the text of the resolution passed by Dundee City Council on 21 April 2025 on the crisis of management at the University.
22 May 2025 – Message to members
It is with deep regret that we inform you of the failure of UEG to meaningfully engage with the dispute resolution process.
Our requests remained as indicated in the letter to management on Friday 16th May:
1. withdrawal of section 188;
2: commitment to no compulsory redundancies until at least June 2026.
We were promised that we would receive a response in writing in time for us to call an emergency branch meeting on Friday. As it stands, no communication has been received from UEG. Hence, our action will go ahead on Monday 26 May 2025 as planned.
Picket lines will be every morning 8am-12pm outside the Tower building.
Join us and save this university.