A “complete breakdown in cash management” and a “lack of expenditure control” at the top of the University of Dundee contributed to its perilous financial state, according to long-awaited accounts.
As the 145-year-old university prepares to slash nearly 200 more jobs, it has finally released its figures for the financial year 2023-24, a period that saw it come close to bankruptcy, before it was bailed out by the Scottish government.
Posted 1 July, the accounts offer further insight into the institution’s deteriorating financial stability in recent years.
In 2023, a year ahead of Dundee recording a £35 million deficit, some 99 members of staff were making more than £100,000 a year. By July 2024, that number was 111.
Combined with the decline in international student numbers after Brexit and “other external factors”, the university saw staff costs “spiral” and operating costs grow by 43 per cent.
