University of Edinburgh rocked by delays in payments for staff and students

After the rollout of a new payment system, the University of Edinburgh has seen delays in the transfer of financial aid and wages to staff and students.

The university apologised for the rollout of the new People and Money (P&M) system to students and staff. They added that they are prioritising fixing the issue and working “tirelessly”.

A letter signed by over 2000 members of the Edinburgh university community called for action from the university to solve the issue. They said the delays in the system were both damaging the reputation of the university and negatively affecting all university work.

The system for dealing with payments at the university also manages HR and other finance issues. It was first created in November 2020 and launched fully at the start of this academic year.

PhD students have reported not receiving guaranteed stipends to facilitate their studying. Meanwhile, hundreds of students have already missed expenses and other payments this year.

There have also been issues with paying for lab and scholarly equipment.

One anonymous PhD student said: “My research is dependent on foreign samples and international shipping but we have been unable to import anything.

“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.”

A University of Edinburgh spokesperson 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 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

“We apologise to any of our students, staff or suppliers who are experiencing a delay in payment.”