Sector response to the Gillies review

Universities Scotland and the Committee of Scottish Chairs have worked together to produce a sector response to the Gillies Review. The Professor Gillies and BDO report into the University of Dundee highlighted significant failings amongst the former executive and governance team. The findings are specific to one institution, but Professor Gillies also offered a set of lessons for the sector. We welcome the publication of the Gillies Report and fully recognise the importance of rigorous external scrutiny and the opportunities it presents for reflection, learning, and enhancement.

This is a supra-institutional response to the Gillies Report and each individual organisation, as would be expected of any autonomous institution, is already undertaking its own review that reflects its individual institutional structure, purpose and processes. These will reflect the requirements as set out in the Scottish Funding Council’s Outcomes Framework and Assurance Model.

In responding, we have made three overarching points:

• First, we affirm Professor Gillies’ conclusion that the Scottish Code of Good Higher Education Governance remains robust, relevant, and fit for purpose. The principles enshrined within the Code continue to provide a clear framework to ensure that universities operate transparently, accountably, and in the best interests of their students, staff, and wider communities. Similarly, we affirm Professor Gillies’ conclusion that the Scottish Funding Council’s Financial Memorandum with Higher Education is also fit for purpose. However, unlike the Code, it has not been updated since 2014 and, as recommended by Gillies, it would benefit from undertaking the same enhancement approach adopted by the sector’s Code.
• Second, we stress that the failures of management and governance highlighted at Dundee are a result of a failure to comply with the Code and do not reflect the situation across the sector. Scotland’s universities have consistently demonstrated high standards of governance, accountability, and stewardship. However, the decade-long funding pressures that Dundee experienced as part of the wider context leading to the current situation, are felt by every Scottish university. While the combination of leadership and management failures at Dundee are not likely to emerge at another institution, we take seriously the lessons drawn from Dundee in shaping institutional responses to the challenges we face.
• Third, we embrace the enhancement-oriented ethos that underpins Scottish higher education. In line with this approach, we recognise that well-functioning governance systems evolve and adapt in response to changing social, economic, and institutional contexts. This is why the sector has taken the opportunity to revise the Code twice since its introduction.

It is in the spirit of the last point that Universities Scotland intends to convene an inclusive dialogue at national level between Chairs, Principals, staff and student representative bodies later in this academic year to jointly reflect on Gillies/BDO with particular consideration given to the evidence base of best practice we expect to be generated as a product of the parallel review of HE Governance as led by the Committee of University Chairs (CUC) in England. The CUC review is expected to generate a significant evidence base of good practice, including on the relationship between executive and non-executive leadership, skills for effective governance, and how governance can evolve to meet future challenges. We intend to draw on this evidence base in Scotland, as aligned to the findings in the Gillies report.