THE Principal of one of Scotland's top universities has been suspended from office, it has emerged.
Professor Andrew Atherton, Principal & Vice-Chancellor at Dundee University, was removed from his £300,000 post last month while an "internal process" was carried out.
The nature of his suspension has not been revealed, and the situation has been clouded in secrecy by University authorities.
READ MORE: St Andrews named UK university of the year
An email leaked to the media says that Professor Atherton, a fluent mandarin speaker who has only been in the job since January this year, was suspended on September 13.
The email states: "It will be reported in the local press tomorrow (Thursday 31 October) that the Principal & Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Atherton, has been suspended from office.
"I can confirm that the Principal has been suspended since 13 September, pending an internal process which remains to be completed.
READ MORE: Dundee University students launch recruitment drive for new faculty boss
"In the interests of fairness and natural justice, and as in all cases of this kind, it would not be appropriate for the University to comment on this matter while due process is ongoing."
It adds: "The University Executive Group has, throughout this period, been managing the University’s affairs and will continue to do so."
Professor Atherton was formerly Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Lancaster University.
A spokesman for the Universoty said: "Professor Atherton, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, was suspended from office on September 13, pending an investigation which remains to be completed.
"That process includes an investigation carried out by someone external to the University.
"As is our policy in any disciplinary case, it would not be appropriate for the University to comment further while the process is ongoing."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel