{"id":2298,"date":"2025-06-28T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T13:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2298"},"modified":"2025-06-29T07:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T06:27:10","slug":"annihilation-of-a-vice-chancellor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2298","title":{"rendered":"Annihilation of a Vice Chancellor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scottish politicians brutally exposed what has been happening at Dundee University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see the carnage here<\/a>, as former Vice Chancellor Iain Gillespie appeared before the Select Committee at Holyrood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s like watching a tubby, slow-moving sloth trapped in a cage with a pack of wolverines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Gillespie\u2019s leadership, Dundee plunged into a \u00a335\u202fmillion deficit,<\/strong> shedding approximately 300 jobs, facing possible campus closures \u2014 while he repeatedly assured everyone it was all sunshine and surpluses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committee convener Douglas Ross<\/a>, quoting the Pamela\u202fGillies report, blasted Gillespie for \u201chubris, overbearing behaviour, dangerous over-confidence and arrogance<\/em>\u201d. Ross then flatly called him a \u201ccoward<\/em>\u201d\u2014 accusing him of creating the crisis and walking away with over \u00a3150,000 in severance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willie Rennie <\/a> pressed Gillespie on whether any staff had previously raised concerns about his bullying behaviour. Initially, Gillespie claimed no recollection\u2014but under Rennie\u2019s scrutiny, he admitted a complaint had been filed during his time at the Natural Environment Research Council, referencing the staff member\u2019s experience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I went to another university completely broken\u2026 I lost a lot, including my final salary pension.\u201d [Victim of Gillespie]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Rennie then remarked pointedly: \u201cThe fact you initially denied this tells us a lot about you.<\/em>\u201d Further revelations of his time as Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Leicester <\/a>revealed a pattern of hubristic behaviour, arrogance, bullying and poor management style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether he was corrupt or incompetent, Gillespie told MSPs in a moment of shocking candour,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly not corrupt, so I have to choose incompetent.\u201d [Prof Iain Gillespie]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This will be one of the defining quotes of the Great University Scandal of 2025 and 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Iain Gillespie repeatedly claimed ignorance\u2014first on a breached banking covenant (\u201cI only found out in the Gillies report<\/em>\u201d), then on expense policy violations (\u00a387,000 flagged)\u2014and brushed off criticism by blaming culture and delegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The questioning by MSPs was repeatedly fact-driven, confrontational and aimed squarely at securing tangible accountability\u2014not just apologies.<\/strong> A text-book example of holding the powerful to account. A credit to Scottish democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those of us who have watched the moral decline of all our universities over the last decade will not be at all surprised at the revelations of the poor behaviour at the top of Dundee University. It is commonplace in the higher echelons of all UK Universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respect, Holyrood. First Peter Mathieson (VC of Edinburgh) skewered<\/a> and now Iain Gillespie eviscerated. It’s no more than they deserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over to you at the sleepy Senedd Cymru. And Westminster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scottish politicians brutally exposed what has been happening at Dundee University. You can see the carnage here, as former Vice Chancellor Iain Gillespie appeared before the Select Committee at Holyrood. It’s like watching a tubby, slow-moving sloth trapped in a cage with a pack of wolverines. Under Gillespie\u2019s leadership, Dundee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2298"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2316,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions\/2316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}