Glasgow college boss in 'globetrotting' row over business trips across the world
02.02.2023 - 08:13
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A “globetrotting” college boss racked up over twenty foreign trips before backing a redundancy scheme for staff.
Dr Paul Little, principal of City of Glasgow College, visited New York, Rome and Vienna as well as travelling to London dozens of times.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “Some of my constituents have raised concerns with me about spending at this college, so there will be deep concern about job losses after the principal has flown all over the world.”
The College, which has 30,000 students, said in December that cost pressures meant they had to make cuts of £4m.
Their statement confirmed a voluntary severance scheme for staff and around 70 posts are likely to be lost.
A freedom of information request on Little’s foreign business trips has drawn criticism about College spending decisions leading up to the cuts round.
In 2018/19, Little travelled to New York for a seven day trip, Brussels twice, Shanghai, Berlin on two occasions, Budapest and Singapore.
In the same year, he also went to Vienna twice, Rome and Dublin.
The following year saw Dr Little, who is principal and chief executive, spend five days in New York, Brussels, Kosovo, India, Copenhagen and the US again.
No trips were recorded for 2020/21, which was the main pandemic year, but he is listed as going to Norway, Dubai, Lyon and Dublin in the current financial year.
As well as 22 overseas trips, he was also in London over 30 times between 2018 and 2023.
Other domestic locations included Windsor, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Portsmouth and Southampton.
The cost to the College came to around £27,000, with some of the trips funded by partner organisations.
Dr Little’s salary in 2020/21 was nearly £170,000 and his total