The University of Edinburgh has apologized after payments to students, staff and suppliers were delayed by the introduction of a new financial system.
The apology came after a letter from scientists and staff urging them to take action against the “devastating” effects of the new system.
The university said it is working tirelessly to clear the backlog.
It said student payment issues had been escalated to the highest level for resolution as soon as possible.
The letter, written by the university’s elected Senate members, expressed “urgent and deep” concern at the “unsuccessful” implementation of the new “People and Money” (P&M) system.
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P&M is a centralized human resources, payroll and financial system that the university first implemented in November 2020. It was then fully rolled out this year.
The letter, which currently has more than 2,000 signatures, detailed the system’s impact on all aspects of the university’s operations.
It also said its reputation with suppliers has been damaged due to non-payments.
dr Stuart Gilfillan, a lecturer in geochemistry who has been with the university for 16 years, is one of the Senate’s elected members.
He said he understands that a new system could have problems.
“To be honest, there were issues at every stage of this rollout that weren’t addressed throughout the process,” said Dr. Gilfillan.
“The same recurring problems affecting different people. It’s having a tremendous impact on all departments at the university.”
Documents viewed by BBC Scotland confirm several issues relating to the system have been raised as early as 2021.
PhD student Ben Fisher told the BBC he did not receive his grant on time last month.
His stipend—a non-refundable sum given to graduate students to support their studies—is his main source of income.
He worried about how he could afford the rent and as of July he still hadn’t been reimbursed.
“It feels like we’re not a priority, especially students who are getting paid,” he said.
‘You reconsider whether universities are the right place to work given all the bureaucracy that you wouldn’t get if you worked for a private researcher.’
The university said it held a series of open meetings to listen to student concerns.
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At a meeting it was announced that a task team had been set up to deal with the arrears.
It said 140 students had not been paid as of Oct. 28 and 415 unpaid payments for student expenses had been identified.
Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, raised concerns about the university’s reputation because it was unable to pay suppliers. This question, which was also addressed in the letter.
“My research depends on foreign samples and international shipping, but we couldn’t import anything,” they said.
The student said many suppliers have suspended or canceled deliveries due to non-payment by the university.
“That means we either have to import things from our own pockets or risk delaying time-sensitive research and jeopardizing our reputation with international collaborators.”
dr Gilfillan said moving to a centralized system has meant that staff and academics, who typically prioritized teaching and research, have had to spend more time on P&M.
“It’s introduced a lot more bureaucracy to the job, it’s shifted responsibility away from the professionals and HR people who work on things like this and know how to use them,” he said.
“My job is teaching and research, that’s what I’m trained for.”
A spokesman for the University of Edinburgh said: “The University recently implemented a new financial system which forced us to pause financial processing for a period over the summer to allow us to test the system and transfer huge amounts of data.
“Unfortunately, this has led to a backlog of some payments.”
The statement said the number of staff on the finance team had been increased to try to address the backlog.
“The university prides itself on maintaining good relationships with suppliers and we are doing our best to ensure all payments are processed as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
“We apologize to any of our students, staff or suppliers who are experiencing payment delays.”
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