Job loss tally at Dundee University to include 700 staff in 'devastating' update

The institution had estimated 632 full-time equivalent posts - around 20 per cent of the workforce - would be axed to help save £35 million.

But in a letter updating MSPs, interim principal Professor Shane O’Neill has reportedly now provided more details and revealed "we estimate that around 700 individuals would be impacted".

Prof O’Neill said the subject areas with a “greater scope” for reduction include Business, Life Sciences, Humanities, Geography, Art and Design, Computing, Mathematics and Physics.

He said there will be no changes in modules for Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Education and Social Work.

Michael Marra, a Labour North East MSP and the party’s finance spokesman, said: "This number of job losses will be devastating for so many workers at the university and for the Dundee economy. The SNP have to step forward with a bailout equal to the scale of this disaster.

"I have been calling for an industrial-style bail out and a turn-around team for months now. With each days that passes, the situation gets worse. The Scottish Government must act immediately - no more dithering or delay as ministers play catch up.

"The former principal and his high-spending culture have so much to answer for. But underneath this is incompetence is a crisis spreading across our universities as a result of 15 years of SNP failure and mismanagement."

Green MSP Maggie Chapman was recently elected the new rector of the university and will take up the role from August 1.

She said: “This is even worse than many of us expected. It is a shocking act of vandalism that will pile further crisis on the institution.

"The sense of betrayal will be felt by staff and students all across the campus and beyond. And of course, this number doesn’t reflect the over 200 vacancies that currently exist and won’t be filled.

“The university has been brought to the brink by years of mismanagement, incompetence and poor decisions from a senior management team that has failed to listen or to engage with those around them.

“The crisis has exposed a total lack of transparency and accountability. If these cuts are allowed to go ahead, they will deal a crushing blow to the campus and to the university’s reputation.

“I stand with the workers, trade unions and students who make Dundee University the great institution it is. They deserve dignity, security, and real long term solutions, not even more pain and instability.”

Last month, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) chief executive Francesca Osowska stressed it was “vital that the circumstances surrounding the financial challenges” at the university were fully investigated.

The SFC has confirmed £22m of emergency support for the cash-strapped university

The investigation, to be led by former Glasgow Caledonian University principal Professor Pamela Gillies, will examine the causes of Dundee’s “worsening financial situation”, including the extent to which external factors had an impact on its income.

The terms of reference also make clear the probe will consider reasons why the university “failed to manage its cash prudently, allowing it to deteriorate to critically low levels”. In addition, it will consider if governing bodies at Dundee University had been “left with a false impression of the university’s financial health”.