The finance chief who quit crisis-hit UHI Perth says he warned bosses the university was at risk of closure without huge cuts.
Gavin Stevenson – who resigned on April 18 – claims he was “scapegoated” for Perth College’s £2 million deficit and warns the institution is in a “state of chaos”.
“The financial position is perilous,” he told us. “It is a desperately precarious situation.”
We revealed last week how UHI Perth had floated cutting university degrees to plug its financial black hole.
In an exclusive interview with The Courier, Mr Stevenson says bosses may have no choice but to take the “nuclear option” to balance the books.
UHI Perth claims this drastic degrees proposal was “strongly dismissed” immediately after being put forward on March 6.
But Mr Stevenson claims “common discussions” were had around taking extreme measures.
“This won’t be news to anyone – the only way you can cut significant costs is taking out chunks of academic staff,” he told us.
“They will have to do that eventually.
“One of the discussions we had was to stop providing higher education degrees over a period of time.
“Unless you do start cutting the curriculum – and it’s not right for the students, I agree – there is no way they’ll be close to a balanced budget.”
But he says even this may not suffice.
Mr Stevenson, looking ahead to the difficult decisions facing the university, said: “They would have to cut higher education entirely, and even that might not be enough.”
“It could be as drastic as the college closing. I made that point at a board meeting.
“If you look at the numbers, there’s no guarantee what you’d be left with is viable.”
Mr Stevenson was in the job for less than a year before quitting.
His replacement will be the fifth finance director at the institution during Dr Margaret Cook’s tenure as principal.
Mr Stevenson claims he was “firefighting” with “insufficient resources” for the first six months when he came in.
“The finance team was badly resourced,” he said.
Mr Stevenson says he had been doing his best to address the university’s financial woes when he was told the leadership had lost confidence in him.
He said: “I was being scapegoated for the lack of decision-making.
“I can’t control the revenue, because it’s largely grant funded and influenced by student numbers.”
He opted to quit instead of fighting to stay on.
Reflecting on the last few months, the former finance director says: “Margaret Cook is responsible for all the decisions that go in that college.”
Mr Stevenson thinks Dr Cook has shown plenty of positive qualities as UHI Perth’s boss.
He said: “She’s very visible, she makes a lot of effort, and she works hard.
“But they need somebody more commercial.
“It shouldn’t have come as a surprise there was a deficit.
“The big decisions should have been made two or three years ago.
“It was an obvious this was going to be a problem at some point.”
UHI model is ‘broken’
UHI Perth gained university status as part of the Highlands and Islands group in 2011.
Institutions under the Highlands and Islands banner hand back cash to the central office.
But Mr Stevenson says the entire model is “broken”.
“If you need that money to run a college, it seems silly to me,” he said.
“Perth College saw very little benefit.”
A UHI Perth spokesperson said: “The financial sustainability issues the college is facing are symptomatic of sectoral wide challenges.
“UHI Perth has been reviewing its financial position regarding current and future spending in a challenging economic and funding climate.
“The board of management remains confident that recovery plans will prevail.”
A Highlands and Islands University spokesperson added: “In 2023, we launched a transformation programme to build a more integrated and unified university partnership.
“The transformation programme will design and create a new operating model with a dedicated focus on financial sustainability.”
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