University of Edinburgh apologises over payment backlog
- Published
A letter to the university's management expressing financial concerns has received thousands of signatures
The University of Edinburgh has apologised after payments to students, staff and suppliers were delayed by the rollout of a new financial system.
The apology came after a letter from academics and staff urged it to take action over the "devastating" effect of the new system.
The university said it was working tirelessly to get through the backlog.
It said student payment issues had been escalated to the highest level to be resolved as quickly as possible.
The letter, which was penned by the university's elected senate members, expressed "urgent and profound" concern about the "unsuccessful" rollout of the new People and Money (P&M) system.
P&M is a centralised HR, payroll and finance system which the university first introduced in November 2020. It was then rolled out completely this year.
The letter, which currently has more than 2,000 signatures, described the effect the system was having on all aspects of business at the university.
It also said its reputation with suppliers had been damaged due to non-payments.
Dr Stuart Gilfillan, a reader in geochemistry, who has worked at the university for 16 years, is one of the elected members of senate.
'Huge impact'
He said he understood that a new system could have issues.
"But truth be told there have been issues at each stage of this rollout which haven't been addressed along the way," Dr Gilfillan said.
"The same reoccurring problems affecting different people. It's having a huge impact across all the university's departments."
Documents seen by BBC Scotland confirm that multiple issues regarding the system were raised as far back as 2021.
Ben is a polar marine biogeochemist and PHD student at the University of Edinburgh
PHD student Ben Fisher told the BBC he did not receive his stipend on time last month.
His stipend - a non-repayable sum provided to doctoral students to help support their studies - is his primary source of income.
It left him worried about how he would be able to afford rent and he has still not been reimbursed for expenses from as far back as July.
"It feels like we aren't a priority, specifically students who get paid," he said.
"It makes you reconsider if universities are the right place to work, given all the bureaucracy that you wouldn't get working for a private researcher."
The university said it had held a number of open meetings to listen to concerns from staff.
During one meeting, it was revealed that a task team had been set up to deal with the backlog of payments.
It said 140 students were not paid on 28 October and 415 unpaid student expense payments had been identified.
Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed concerns about damage to the university's reputation as it had been unable to pay suppliers. This issue which was also raised in the letter.
"My research is dependent on foreign samples and international shipping but we have been unable to import anything," they said.
The student said many suppliers had suspended or cancelled deliveries due to non-payment from the university.
"This means we either have to import things out-of-pocket, or risk delaying time-sensitive research and putting our reputation with international collaborators at risk."
'This will not happen again'
Dr Gilfillan said the move to a centralised system had meant staff and academics who usually prioritised teaching and research were having to spend more time dealing with P&M.
"What it has done is introduce a lot more bureaucracy into the job, it's shifting responsibility away from the professionals such as HR staff who work on this kind of stuff and know how to use it," he said.
"My role is teaching and research, that's what I'm trained to do."
A spokesperson for the University of Edinburgh said: "The university recently implemented a new finance system, which required us to interrupt financial processing for a period over summer to allow us to test the system and transfer huge volumes of data.
"This has unfortunately led to a backlog of some payments."
The statement said the number of people in the finance team had been increased to try to tackle the backlog.
"The university prides itself in fostering good relationships with suppliers, and we are doing our best to ensure all payments are processed as quickly as possible," the spokesperson said.
"We apologise to any of our students, staff or suppliers who are experiencing a delay in payment."
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- Published11 October 2022
