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Activity at universities falls into 3 broad categories – teaching, research & administration. They are not equivalent. Teaching & research are core activities. Everything else serves to support these primary goals. Some administrative work is obviously necessary. This includes student support, counselling services, IT services, the disability centre, librarians, research Read more…
We have described in an earlier blog posting the sad yet inspiring case of Magdalen Connolly The matter was extensively discussed in the Times Higher Educational Supplement by Wyn Evans and in the Daily Telegraph by Poppy Wood last year. Briefly, Magdalen Connolly introduced ground-breaking concepts related to a Judaeo-Arabic Read more…
Vice Chancellors, Pro-Vice Chancellors and Registrars make lots of money. Universities justify their huge salaries as needed to “attract top executive talent“. The median Vice Chancellor pay of the Russell Group for 2023-2024 is £400,000, as reported by the Times Higher Education Supplement. “The largest individual total remuneration went to Read more…
We know, we know … The last decade has been like watching a gang of rogues and grifters take over the UK universities and treat them like conquered vassal states to be used as spoils of war for any purpose that serves their personal whims. How can we pick the Read more…
We all worked for the lab at the university. It was a very successful lab. It was run on big grants obtained by our highly-cited PI. We made many important contributions to medical research for over 25 years. We had many influential publications in high impact journals. The lab was Read more…
It’s a hyper-competitive field! Like the most evil tech billionaire. Or the dumbest thing done by Donald Trump. When it comes to the destructive culture of modern universities, Oxbridge likes to be at the apex of the rankings. For example, Cambridge is at the top when it comes to Vice Read more…
One of the commonest queries to the 21 Group is about contested authorship. Politics around paper authorship is particularly an issue in STEM subjects where collaborations are the norm, less so in the humanities. Queries usually come from students & postdocs. This is a typical query: I’m seeking advice on Read more…
Another Scandal ! Another Scandal ! Another Scandal ! We predict that 2025 will be the Year of Scandals in UK universities. There are a number of reasons. The regulator of Higher Education is the Office for Students, which employs nearly 800 people. It has created a well paid, comfortable Read more…
General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) give you the right to request information held about you — for example, meeting minutes about your promotion, pay, complaints or even just malicious emails naming you. You may be unhappy about how your University has handled your own personal information. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Read more…
There’s been a Grievance raised against a Professor. The Human Resources (HR) division of the University is indolently carrying out an investigation. This might be done by a group of internal academics, advised by HR. Or sometimes the University uses an outside ‘dispute resolution’ company, or a solicitor/barrister, who write Read more…