Call to pause Holyrood grilling for ex-Dundee University principal
Pressure is growing on Holyrood's education committee to pause its planned evidence session with former principal Iain Gillespie and other former senior leaders.
The Courier can reveal there are fears the recovery plan and negotiations over access to a loan could be harmed by a potentially explosive hearing.
Mr Gillespie had been due to appear at the committee in the coming weeks alongside former vice principal Lady Wendy Alexander, former court chair Amanda Millar and the university's chief operating officer, Jim McGeorge.
But it is understood several MSPs including North East Fife politician Willie Rennie are now urging convener Douglas Ross to pause the hearing.
Senior figures at the troubled institution are currently negotiating with lenders for access to a multi-million loan facility.
We reported previously that the university's bank had gone cold on the potential loan after government criticised the first recovery plan.
Confidence was dented further when interim principal Shane O'Neill and other senior insiders appeared before the education committee's first evidence session in March.
Professor Pamela Gillies – who is leading the independent probe into the cash crisis – has also asked MSPs on the education committee to pause their hearings until her report is published.
'The committee aren't actually looking at evidence – they are just speaking to people,' one Holyrood insider explained.
'We aren't suggesting they don't take evidence or examine what went wrong, this isn't about covering things up.'
Mr Rennie said: 'The future of the university remains precarious which is why we should delay our special evidence sessions of the parliament's education committee with the previous leadership of the institution.
'We must not do anything that undermines the agreement of a new recovery plan and the university's relationship with its bank.'
Frustration has been expressed by politicians over the length of time a second potential recovery is taking.
It is understood that discussions between the university and the Scottish Funding Council are at an advanced stage.
Dundee-based Labour MSP Michael Marra renewed his call for urgent action.
Mr Marra said: 'We are five weeks on from the promises made to parliament that a new plan would be published within a fortnight.
'I am being stopped in the street and have constituents in tears on doorsteps all asking why they are still in the dark. They desperately want to know what on earth is going on.
'We are still in the dark about what is going to happen, with staff now in a state of despair as this crisis approaches its sixth month.'
He said voluntary severance schemes should have been in place.
'All of this has now been sitting on the government's desk for weeks with lives on hold as staff anxiously wait for news,' he added.
'We need action now – the SNP government must tell us what they have achieved, and the university must publish its updated recovery plan.'
Mr Rennie added: 'I find it astonishing that weeks after the promise of a new, revised recovery plan we still have nothing.
'Staff and students have been left in the dark with increasing anxiety whilst ministers visit the university for pictures.
First Minister John Swinney insisted previously that the issue was at the 'top of the government's agenda'.
Accused of moving too slowly, the first minister said: 'The government is going to continue its deep and serious involvement in working with the funding council to support the University of Dundee.
'This issue is right at the top of my agenda because I want to make sure the future of the University of Dundee is secured.
'I will do everything I can to make sure that's the case.'
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