Call for ex-Dundee University chief Iain Gillespie to hand back £150,000 pay-out
Former Dundee University principal Professor Iain Gillespie is being urged to hand back a £150,000-plus pay-out he received after quitting the crisis-hit institution.
Interim principal Professor Shane O'Neill confirmed on Tuesday that his predecessor received six months' salary after abruptly walking away in December.
He quit his £305,000-a-year role weeks after he revealed a £30 million blackhole in the university's finances and told staff there would be 'inevitable' job losses.
North East Fife MSP Willie Rennie says the former university chief should hand back six-month notice pay he received 'without delay'.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat politician said: 'It's difficult to believe that the former principal would think it appropriate to accept any pay-off let alone one of this scale.
'As staff face redundancy he seems oblivious to the pain they will be feeling. Although the inquiry into what went wrong has yet to report it is pretty clear that serious mistakes were made under his leadership.
'Any reasonable person would urge him to return the money without delay.'
Confirming the pay-out to staff, Prof O'Neill said: 'Professor Iain Gillespie stood down as principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Dundee with immediate effect in December.
'We can now confirm that he was paid his contractual entitlement of six months' salary on exit.'
As well as his basic salary, unpublished draft accounts shows Prof Gillespie's total salary bill came in at over £350,000 in 2023-24 when pension contribution were taken into account.
It means he has likely received in excess of £150,000 since his exit six months ago.
An independent probe, led by Professor Pamela Gillies, is now under way into the cause of the near-financial collapse of the university.
She is examining how the university ended up in such a severe cash crisis that bosses feared they would run out of money within months.
The independent probe is due to report on June 19.
Prof O'Neill has already admitted mistakes were made, conceding financial reporting was not what it should have been to ensure the university's financial position was well understood.
He told The Courier previously: 'In terms of the management of our overall cash position, that's one of the elements that wasn't sufficiently scrutinised.'
He added: 'I don't think I was in the kind of role that I had the primary responsibility around that,' he said.
'Certainly the executive as a group are ready to say there were things that we weren't aware of or advised about that we should have been.'
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