Cash-strapped Dundee University is splashing out thousands of pounds every year to cover expenses for hotels, meals, and taxis for its highest-paid staff.
Since 2017, almost £50,000 has been claimed by the registered charity’s executive group, which contains all its senior decision-makers.
The university, like all others in Scotland, receives a significant proportion of its funding from the Scottish Government.
Some of the reasons for the claims include relocating for the job, VIP dinners, and hotel visits in the UK and abroad.
Among them is a claim by Professor Iain Gillespie, the university’s principal, for a £4.50 Edinburgh Airport bus home in December last year.
International travel among expense claims
Former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, who is the university’s vice principal for international and is responsible for driving up the number of international students enrolling at the institution, claimed the most.
Ms Alexander got more than £12,000, including £1,200 on hotels and meals on an eight-day trip to South East Asia in January 2019.
She also made two claims for £5 taxi journeys and a “subsistence” claim of £3.58.
Prof Gillespie, who is also the vice-chancellor, also claimed while on various trips to the tune of £6,300 and one of his biggest expenses was a £480 meal in October 2021 following Cop26.
Prof Gillespie treated 10 people including a Malawian minister and his colleagues, as well as members of the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) to dinner at Café Royal in Edinburgh.
Union anger at ‘hypocrisy’
Susan Robertson, from Unite the Union, says the amount claimed will anger many staff as controversial pension changes to the lowest paid employees come into effect in January.
She said: “This shows the sheer hypocrisy that Dundee University states on one hand that it is cash strapped and that is why they are content to send my members into pension poverty yet they have the money to splash out on expenses for the Principal Iain Gillespie and vice principal (for international) Wendy Alexander who are already earning exorbitant salaries.
“Times must be tough indeed for the principal, who earns between £240,000 and £250,000, when he has to claim £4.50 for a bus to get him from Edinburgh Airport to his home in Edinburgh.
“That’s while my members in Grades 1-6 — the lowest paid staff at the university — worry about how they are going to afford to get into work every day.”
A total of £48,237.18 has been claimed by the various staff members to occupy the seven posts over the past five years.
Of this, £8,000 was paid in “relocation expenses” to both Ms Carol Prokopyszn and scandal hit Professor Andrew Atherton.
Prof Atherton, the former principal, received the payment before being suspended amid allegations of bullying and failing to pay rent.
He resigned after just 10 months in the job and the university managed to recover £4,333 of his relocation expenses.
Ms Prokopyszn received the same amount to move to Dundee to take up a job as director of finance four years ago but recently left for Manchester University this year.
Dundee University say international trips are boosting student recruitment
Flights are generally excluded from expenses as they are booked centrally through the university’s travel provider.
Dundee University says all staff are entitled to claim back expenses incurred in the course of carrying out duties on behalf of the university.
It says senior staff and many others not part of the executive group active in operations around the world often need to travel to carry out these tasks.
A spokesperson said: “Our national and international activity is focused on strategic growth and engagement that strengthens the university.
“While we have had to work with reduced central funding from government over the past five years (the period covered by these figures) we have massively increased our income from our international operations, including student recruitment which has a knock-on economic benefit for the city in excess of £160 million per year.”
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