An Aberdeen university has been plunged into turmoil after its vice-principal quit in protest at the “unacceptable” conduct of its principal and another senior colleague.
The Press and Journal can reveal that the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen has been rocked by the resignation of Professor Paul Hagan, vice-principal for research.
In an explosive resignation letter, he said he was quitting the top job because of the RGU board’s “extraordinary” decision not to punish principal Ferdinand von Prondzynski and Gordon McConnell, vice-principal for commercial and regional innovation.
The shock move follows a ruling by an internal panel last week that the two men had breached the university’s conflict of interest policy by failing to declare during Professor McConnell’s recruitment that they were co-directors of a firm which owned a £12million castle in Ireland.
The only sanction for the former Dublin City University colleagues was that they would be “required to re-familiarise themselves with the university’s ethics and conflict of interest policy” and to “formally discuss the outcome” of the probe with the board.
Prof Hagan – who was on the panel which interviewed Prof McConnell for the job last year – sent his resignation letter to Prof von Prondzynski on Tuesday last week, the same day that the findings of the probe were made public.
“I cannot see how the board could have reached the conclusion and outcome that has been released,” he wrote.
“I am convinced that any other member of staff in the same situation would have been disciplined, possibly dismissed. Staff will find it extraordinary that both of you have avoided any significant sanction.”
He added: “This leaves me in an untenable position. The deficiencies in the appointment process cannot be repaired retrospectively and I cannot agree with the minimal action the board has decided upon.
“So reluctantly, I will now begin the search for an alternative role elsewhere in the sector.”
The respected former Scottish Funding Council director, who is a director of the Oil and Gas Technology Centre and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, also said he doubted the investigation panel’s conclusion that the failure to declare the business interest was a “genuine omission or oversight”.
“I find that hard to believe, as you made other declarations at the interview about your time together at Dublin City University,” he wrote.
“Collective amnesia on the directorships stretches the boundaries of credibility. This was a personal, not a professional connection, and demanding of transparency.”
Last night, a spokeswoman for the university said: “RGU carried out a full investigation and the findings have been made public. The university will not be making any further comment at this time.”
The Press and Journal revealed in May that a probe had been launched after a whistleblower had highlighted the business connection between Professor von Prondzynski and Professor McConnell, who started his job at RGU in January.
A four-strong panel made up of three RGU governors and one external member looked over documents relating to the appointment and conducted a series of interviews, including with Prof Hagan, before reporting to vice-chairman David Strachan.
It was concluded that they had not declared during the recruitment process that they were co-directors of Knockdrin Estates Ltd, a company which owned the von Prondzynski family estate in Ireland.
Prof von Prondzynski had declared in his 2017 annual declaration of interest form that he was a director of Knockdrin Estates, but did not mention the business link to Prof McConnell or make any declaration in relation to Francmine Ltd – an Isle of Man-registered company that is a shareholder of Knockdrin Estates and of which he is also a director.
Prof McConnell did not say on his declaration of interest form, which was signed by Prof von Prondzynski, that he had been a director of Knockdrin Estates since 2006.
However, RGU said in a statement last week that Mr Strachan was “satisfied with the investigation’s conclusion that there was not a deliberate action to conceal any information” and that the failure to disclose the co-directorship “did not have a consequence on the outcome of the recruitment process”.
The panel found no other undeclared links between the former Dublin City University colleagues, and that the recruitment process was “appropriate”.
Last week, Prof von Prondzynski described the investigation report as “comprehensive”, and added: “I accept the finding it makes regarding my failure to declare one element of my conflict of interests (an oversight which was not deliberate), and will want to ensure that no such failure happens in future on my part.”
Prof Hagan’s resignation letter
Prof Hagan, who joined RGU as vice-principal for research in 2015 after serving as a director of the Scottish Funding Council, had been on the panel which interviewed Prof McConnell for the post of vice-principal for commercial and regional innovation last year.
But in his resignation letter to Prof von Prondzynski, seen by the Press and Journal, he said he now believed it to have been an “inappropriate appointments process”.
He said: “I am firmly of the belief that had this information about this personal conflict been made available at the appropriate time an alternative appointment process would have been instigated, one with more than a single, hand-picked candidate, selected by you.
“We could then have avoided the embarrassing accusations of nepotism. The irony is that Gordon may well have been appointed through such an alternative process, but that is not the point. In my view and in this case, the ends do not justify the means.”
Prof Hagan said he was “surprised” by the outcome of the investigation and that it has “wider and more serious consequences for the university”.
He wrote: “In the future, other staff may use the defence that they ‘forgot’ when challenged in investigations and it will be difficult then to sanction them at the end of a disciplinary procedure, having failed to sanction members of the Executive.
“I believe the board has misjudged the seriousness of the situation and the impact their failure to take more decisive action, indeed any substantive action, will have on the morale of the staff. One rule for them, one for the Executive.
“This outcome will undoubtedly drive a wedge between the staff and members of the Executive. Our stock is already extremely low.”
And the professor raised separate concerns that the running of the university, alleging that the principal had created a “fantasy construct” that the higher education sector was “under threat from politicians and from others”, and that it was “frankly unsettling for our staff”.
The letter added: “The principal and Executive of any university must be beyond reproach. In this case, your actions and those of Gordon have fallen some way below the standards I would expect from those running a leading university supported by public funds.”
Prof von Prondzynski did not respond to a request for comment last night.