Academics said they had repeatedly warned of problems with a new IT system at the University of Edinburgh.
The university has apologized after payments to students, staff and suppliers were delayed by the introduction of a new financial system.
BBC Scotland understands that senior academics and officials have sent letters and reports detailing their concerns about the system.
The university said it is working “tirelessly” to resolve the issues.
The new People and Money (P&M) system is a centralized HR, payroll and finance system that the university first launched in 2020 and rolled out this year.
Problems in this final phase of the project are understood to mean that thousands of invoices issued to the university are still outstanding and finance staff are now processing them manually.
- University of Edinburgh apologizes for late payments
A senior academic said: “There is no doubt that all of these systems have had to be modernised, but questions about the cost and complexity of the system have been raised from the start and we are still looking for answers.”
A spokesman for the Edinburgh office of the University and College Union added: “The system ordered was overly complicated and involved numerous unnecessary manual checks.
“University leadership has been warned many times that this is the case, including by the staff working with these systems, but they have chosen not to listen.
“Management still refuses to address the root cause of the problems. This is a failure of processes and procedures, not an IT issue.”
A report sent to university leadership in February last year highlights dozens of issues in the previous human resources phase of the P&M rollout.
The report, written by the university’s directors of professional services, highlighted issues in areas such as annual leave calculations and the issuance of contracts, emphasizing: “We need to say to people, ‘Please, can you start working without a contract,’ and that feels very wrong”.
In addition, issues with P&M were also raised by the university’s 23 principals, who raised their concerns with university leaders.
It is understood that the estimated cost of the P&M scheme was originally estimated at around £10m. The project was then advertised as a £14m deal in 2017, but a £20.4m deal was agreed in 2019.
A spokeswoman for the university said it “sincerely” regrets the disruption caused by the implementation of P&M and is taking a number of actions to address it.
She added: “We have increased the number of people in our finance team who are working tirelessly to process the increased volume of outstanding invoices.
“The University prides itself on maintaining good relationships with suppliers and we do our best to ensure all payments are processed as quickly as possible. We apologize to any of our students, staff or suppliers who are experiencing payment delays.
“We know there have been issues with scholarships and student payments and these have been escalated to the highest level for resolution as soon as possible.”
The effects of the problems with the new financial system are being felt by doctoral students who depend on the university for income and expenses during their studies.
James Robinson, a PhD student working on community forest management, had two field research trips to Tanzania this year and was struggling to get back the £3,000 he paid upfront as expenses.
A seven-week delay in getting a refund meant the 36-year-old had to borrow money from his partner.
He said: “Spending hasn’t stopped just because the new system is an absolute nightmare, people are still paying for things out of their own pockets.
“I just can’t understand it, for an organization so big and established, and given its wealth, to have done anything about the system that is so disastrously bad.”
PhD students live on scholarships – a non-refundable sum that PhD students receive to support their studies – from the university.
Amanda Bystrom moved to Edinburgh to study at the Institute of Astronomy in September and her first three months’ scholarship, which was due this month, was paid four weeks late because of the P&M issues.
The 26-year-old said she felt embarrassed when she had to borrow money from friends and family because of it.
She added: “I don’t think I’ll get my next scholarship in time. I am financially very vulnerable, we all are, and we cannot live without this money.
“I’m not talking about being able to go out to dinner on the weekends, I’m talking about earning rent.”
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