Dr Holly Patrick-Thomas, President of the EIS University Lecturers Associations (EIS ULA), says that the problems affecting Scotland’s university sector are not just financial in nature, and that we have to look at governance structures to understand what is going wrong within these critical institutions.
Universities seem to be facing a major crisis. Is that a fair assessment from the perspective of the lecturers and academics working in them?
Yes, the university sector is in crisis.
On September 11 2025, staff from the University of Edinburgh, University of the West of Scotland and Robert Gordon University walked out over substantial cuts. They are not alone. The University of Aberdeen is cutting millions from its budget, Edinburgh Napier University plans to cut around 70 roles, Glasgow Caledonian University has opened a voluntary severance scheme, and the University of Dundee is negotiating its survival with the SFC.
But recent governance reports (at the University of Dundee and Australian National University) have identified failures at the top of universities. There's a deeper structural problem that also needs to be addressed.
So although universities are facing massive financial pressures, you think there’s something else going on that’s driving the crisis?
Ancient UK universities were scholarly communities run by and for scholars through elected academic boards - the scholarly community governed itself for knowledge preservation and cultivation.
Modern university statutes derive from these structures. Even post-1992 institutions have academic boards tasked with determining strategy. Yet modern universities operate like corporations.
Corporations are owned by shareholders and run by managers who must deliver growth or dividends. Shareholders have clear mechanisms to challenge or replace underperforming managers. As Robin Burrow notes, "The profit motive matters because it is uniquely good at getting people in organisations to obsess about eliminating waste and inefficiency without dropping quality. In public organisations, this drive simply doesn't exist in the same way."
Universities increasingly adopt corporate structures: managerial hierarchies, strategic plans, financialised targets, and proliferating governance layers. University Courts are staffed with business-background governors brought in for fiduciary expertise. These governors reinforce treating universities like businesses, students like customers, and scholars like employees.
And that’s a problem?
Yes, because University Courts seem incapable of functioning as corporate boards. Their role isn't representing shareholders but supporting management through expertise provision. The SFC's Gillies report showed Dundee's Court failed to adequately challenge financial documentation before disclosing a £35 million deficit. If Courts operated like boards, they would remove senior management for poor performance. When did that last happen? High-profile mismanagement cases reveal Courts are unable or unwilling to scrutinise and hold executives accountable.
So wait a minute…who actually runs Scotland’s universities? Where does the power lie?
Striking academics claim "we are the university"—and historically, they're right. Universities were run for and by scholars.
But modern universities are funded by tuition fees and public money (funded places, research income). University statements proclaim they serve the public good—preserving knowledge, informing society, preparing tomorrow's workforce. This suggests three potential 'owners' of the university: the scholarly community, students, and the wider community.
University Courts struggle to act on any group's interests. There have been multiple votes of no confidence—at Dundee, Edinburgh, UWS, and Scotland's Rural College since 2024. Aside from Dundee, which required SFC bailout, as far as I am aware none led to management removal or published action by University Courts.
This creates a vacuum of meaningful accountability. The only actor with real power is the Scottish Parliament—and only when dangling bankruptcy rescue funds.
If these issues have caused such huge problems, what can be done to improve the situation and protect the university sector?
The sector needs clear government direction. If tuition fees remain free for Scottish students, adequate investment is essential. But universities have grown larger and more corporate without governance structures to match.
Universities need governance reform that clarifies who they serve and ensures effective oversight. Whether they are ultimately run by scholars, students, the public, or all three, there must be mechanisms to hold management accountable to those interests—not just when institutions face collapse, but as standard practice.
The current crisis isn't just financial. It's a governance failure borne from adopting corporate structures without appropriate accountability. Investment without addressing this fundamental flaw will only postpone the inevitable.
The EIS therefore makes an urgent call to the Scottish Government for the HE sector to have additional funding to maintain capacity and an associated governance review, involving a representative and meaningful input from staff, students and the broader community, to ensure that our governance/leadership system is fit for the future.
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