Imperial College London has a formal zero-tolerance policy on bullying and harassment. Like many universities, however, that policy is hardest to enforce precisely where power is greatest: among the senior leadership team. Professor Alice Gast was a chemical engineer who served as 16th President of Imperial College, London from 2014 Read more…
The Registrary of the University of Cambridge, Ms Emma Rampton, has announced that she will step down from her role on 31 December 2025 here. Her decision comes at the end of a year marked by considerable institutional turbulence. This has included a disorderly Chancellorship election, a protracted and ongoing Read more…
The oligarchy has come back for the Cambridge Vet School, as reported here by the BBC. An attempt was made to shut the Vet School last year because of concerns over its accreditation. Now they have returned with new arguments that it is financially unviable. The power play began by Read more…
An interesting Employment Tribunal case has appeared on the gov.uk website that records the Tribunal decisions F versus University of Nottingham has few details, though it is related to disability discrimination. (In cases involving disability discrimination, the Tribunal may make a “Restricted Reporting Order” (RRO) where evidence of a medical Read more…
Our colleagues in Oxford University are showing us the way. As another article appears on sexual harassment in Oxford in The Times, we learn that Oxford academics are now putting a motion to Congregation on the secrecy about bullying and harassment, protesting the use of gagging orders, non-disclosure agreements and Read more…
The real story is: Who made this recording at Council and then leaked the story to the press in an attempt to discredit the Vice Chancellor? And why? According to a leaked recording obtained by Varsity and The Sunday Times, at Monday’s meeting of Cambridge’s University Council – the University’s policy-making body of Read more…
The infographic shows the number of staff employed in the Human Resources division in Cambridge University over time, together with simple parabolic fit to the data. We can see a very steep rise since 2021 that still is continuing apace (despite budget cuts for everyone else!) We highlight the contribution Read more…
Katherine Griffiths‘ article in Bloomberg has reignited press interest in bullying & harassment at UK Universities. The 21 Group has zero sympathy with the predicament of Oxford University. They should have acted on the earlier allegations in al Jazeera’s series ‘Degrees of Abuse‘. They didn’t. It’s no surprise to us Read more…
We reproduce an interesting contribution from poster Review below The poster suggests that Cambridge University is facing problems over transparency and governance, with concerns about unchecked administrative spending and unclear budgets. The post raises questions about accountability and oversight. The Board of Scrutiny called for greater openness in its Thirtieth Read more…
A brutal article by journalist Katherine Griffiths is just out in Bloomberg, exposing the utter failure of Oxford University to deal with harassment and bullying. Seven women have alleged rapes or sexual assaults across the university in the past five years, while more than 30 described direct experiences of sustained Read more…