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 most badass VC?
Certainly, we can rule out the half-bright simpletons like Professor Karen Cox of University of Kent or Professor Iain Gillespie of Dundee University. They knew just enough to get their institutions into very serious financial trouble. Their prompt departures as the grim deficits became public suggest they knew all too well what was happening. They have left others to fix their messes.
You can’t call someone badass just because they forgot where they put their brain.
No, the toughest, craziest, most hardcore badass VC must be … Professor Colin Bailey of Queen Mary, University of London.
During the marking boycott in 2023 over pay and working conditions, participants at Queen Mary faced big wage deductions. Exam grading makes up only a minor portion of an academic’s responsibilities. Staff continued with other teaching and mentoring duties. They only stopped working for a few hours, yet all of their pay was taken for each day of the boycott. This hard-line response was widely criticised in the press with stories of the hardship faced by those affected.
Can you name the big British employer that punished staff for boycotting a small fraction of their work by taking all of their pay for each day of their boycott? So that even while employees did their other tasks, putting in weeks of work, their pay packets were pilfered, month after month, from high summer until almost the start of advent. Some had to take extra jobs, others drew on hardship funds or stuck essential bills on credit cards. Amid a cost of living crisis and with Christmas looming, the Great Wage Robbery carried on. (Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian)
Queen Mary now face an Employment Tribunal led by UCU branch chair Zara Dinnen to determine the legality of their actions. Whatever the Tribunal decides, Queen Mary was the only UK university to act in this way.
Under Prof Bailey’s eyes, the apparatus of Stasi-land has been set up in Queen Mary. Snitch forms were introduced to enable students to report lecturers. Then, at a cost of £400,000, spy cams, sensors and surveillance equipment were installed in six of its buildings ostensibly to record staff usage of space.
“There was a sudden flurry of e-mails and conversations: the head of the department didn’t know anything about it, the school manager didn’t know. It came from the top, and it was very matter of fact” (reported in Nature)
These are actions that create an inhospitable workplace and betray a contempt for staff.
As financial pressures on universities intensified in 2024, Queen Mary responded by closing its Westfield Nursery. The nursery provided childcare for staff and students. The decision to close it was made with little consultation. 19 nursery employees were made jobless and 78 children lost their nursery places. Younger academics often face a choice between progressing their career or starting a family. This affects male family planning choices, but is most harmful to women.
Like almost every UK university, Queen Mary is getting rid of its staff. Nearly 60 academics left via a Voluntary Severance Scheme in early 2024. The victims were made clear right at the start: “Applications are being particularly encouraged from the Schools of English and Drama and the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film”. The resulting loss of staff was used to push the merger of the School of English & Drama with the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film into a shrunken department.
Luckily, there is still money for some things. Prof Bailey gets a salary of £361108 (for 2023-2024) and free use of a £2 million property in central London. “The university covers all cost of utilities, council tax, maintenance, and pension contributions for the vice-chancellor’s accommodation”.
And recently The Times showed a beaming Prof Bailey entertaining Baroness Smith of Malvern and Wu Yan (the Chinese vice-minister of education) at a lavish event at Queen Mary.
Today, academic work largely relies on the goodwill of staff who are already stretched thin. We work on weekends and in the evenings driven by our commitment to our colleagues and our students, and by our desire to do research and teaching.
Universities that are actively hostile to their employees will struggle to operate effectively day-to-day.
There is no reward in being the ultimate tough-as-nails, untamed, unyielding badass Vice Chancellor
One of the main reasons why the Government has declined to help the Universities out of their financial woes is excessive Vice Chancellor pay and perks, which has fed a narrative of waste and mismanagement. The 21 Group will be examining the records of a few more of our lavishly rewarded Vice Chancellors over the coming weeks.
27 Comments
DizziePascal · 26 January 2025 at 17:14
Half a million taxpayer money to put your crew under constant watch is Kim Jong Un level. Maximum respect.
Power and the money, money and the power · 26 January 2025 at 19:04
I feel like we are owed someone putting an AI youtube video mashup of Bailey x rendition of gangstas paradise
Effthemall · 26 January 2025 at 19:17
Since Bailey took over QMUL he has taken us from rank 98th to rank 141st worldwide (as per THE global rankings)
Sounds like he really deserves to skim off our wages and benefits while we have to hustle for pennies just to keep a roof over our heads
Shut your eyes. Realize. · 27 January 2025 at 18:29
-What canst thou give?
– Wouldst thou like the taste of vicechancellory? A coral power suit? A £2 million property?
Photo ops with Chinese ambassadors? A Rolls Royce? Unlimited and unchecked powers to hunt thy enemies and lowly staff in most infernal of ways? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?
– Where do I sign?
Anon · 26 January 2025 at 19:44
The roof is on 🔥
Dripping with alchemy · 27 January 2025 at 17:27
🐺 Ahh-wooooooo !
Bradley · 30 January 2025 at 09:55
haha when the Dear Leader gets home I wonder if he plays that track full volume on loop
dannydyer · 1 February 2025 at 17:05
Hm yes well while he is rocking out
up here in the attic staff are getting crispy – and we could definitely use some water
CourtReporter · 27 January 2025 at 09:13
There are also quite a lot of cases ending up at Employment Tribunals, in addition to the one mentioned in the article.
Eg 29-31st January, there is a case of T Duminis versus Queen Mary College at East London Tribunal
Irrespective of outcome, lots of cases going to Employment Tribunals indicates a failure to sort these matters out beforehand by human resources or senior management.
It suggests poor work culture & environment.
Jonny · 27 January 2025 at 09:52
Also total bleeding waste of taxpayer money making london lawyers rich on their stonking legal fees all at the expense of students & parents & taxpayers.
Could have participated in meditation with courts or unions and settled grievances for a fraction of that cost.
TigerWhoCametoET · 27 January 2025 at 10:32
We should have a section on the site that lists the court calendar for 2025/6 upcoming ET cases. That way higher ed correspondents can plan well in advance.
Silver over everything · 27 January 2025 at 18:56
Cool idea. All the better to read and inform with.
Anon · 27 January 2025 at 17:08
Irrespective of the outcome in courts of law, the problems caused by HR and senior management ultimately end up in the court of public opinion, where they can’t control the narrative.
It’s not a good look for a university. It makes no sense at all—unless they actively want to face closure. But with all the short-term money to be made through looting these institutions, perhaps that’s exactly what the upper echelons of university management want ?
N/A · 27 January 2025 at 19:29
Indeed. When journalists attended the first wave of (London) ETs they were so shocked by the level of management incompetence and abuse on display, that ended up as the final story.
It is the scandalous evidence along the way that makes for good copy — not so much the minutiae of the case.
CrisisHR · 27 January 2025 at 19:33
News from Crisis HR at a UK university
Big delays announced on an HR IT project pushed by senior management. The university have spent many millions on it, and it was due to be launched this year. HR have now discovered that they underestimated the challenges for integration with existing systems and hence all the timelines are wrong. It’s postponed, no clear date set for its delivery. Many more millions will have to be spent.
Also, there has been a big settlement on a major case. It’s the same old story, HR pursued some luckless academic for years, causing major psychological damage. Heads of Schools backed up HR as usual. Finally, after spending God knows what, the university has had to admit it was wrong and has settled with a big pay-out.
Seriously, it would be cheaper to pay the Human Resources Director a salary of £500k provided she stays at home and does nothing.
Looking glass Take the past · 27 January 2025 at 19:59
Thanks, that’s really interesting. It’s beyond tragic that it came to this, and I imagine it must have taken a while and been gruelling. But I’m glad HR and the HOD were forced to finally face the reality of their abuse. It can’t have been easy for them to reach such a human conclusion, cowardly psychopaths that they are.
I hope this means they will think twice before abusing anyone—whether staff or student—again. Whoever fought that case, my deepest respect and solidarity. Stay well.
🐺 Ahh-wooooooo !
Spartacus · 27 January 2025 at 20:30
“Seriously, it would be cheaper to pay the Human Resources Director a salary of £500k provided she stays at home and does nothing.”
Problem with that is Deputy HR Director is usually even stupider and more malign than the HR Director
TigerWhoCametoET · 27 January 2025 at 20:36
Do I sense the presence of a resident of the Fens?
Raven · 28 January 2025 at 09:46
“Problem with that is Deputy HR Director is usually even stupider and more malign than the HR Director”
The other problem may be a handful of frankly evil psychopathic ones, sitting just below, enabled by the toxic culture and the stupidity of the management, who spend their time abusing everyone’s trust, manipulating every communication, stitching everyone up, including their own HR colleagues, and then watch the spectacle of human destruction, shaking their little heads at those difficult academics who just can’t get on with each other…
Butteryhall · 28 January 2025 at 12:58
OK timeout guys, let’s cool off for now, pick things up at next week’s session
Anonymous · 28 January 2025 at 14:26
The term ‘psychopath’ may seem extreme, but it really does apply to this problem in academia, and we really do need to be framing the problem in these terms more often, in order to combat it. Indeed, there is an excellent presentation here:
https://21percent.org/?page_id=388
Prof. Tauber notes that the fraction of psychopaths/sociopaths in the upper echelons of academia (or those likely to score highly on the checklist for this condition) is as high as 30% (the general population has around 3-4% with this condition).
For whatever reason, the University environment is very conducive to such individuals overwhelming all or the majority of key management roles. When that happens, the downward spiral of the organisation can accelerate rapidly, over and above what usually happens in times of serious financial strain.
Thankfully, this crisis within the University sector is being exposed like never before (thanks in large part to this forum and others like it – and those reporting the situation in the press).
I hope others, especially from HR departments, come forward, as we know
not all are this way (eg. https://21percent.org/?p=1239).
Amygdalic_training · 30 January 2025 at 15:01
Psychopathy exists on a scale.
The core attribute is lack of empathy.
In that sense there is nothing “extreme” in what you say.
Academic institutions are governed by individuals who are low on empathy.
That is a fact.
This fact shows through in the abusive treatment of students and staff.
It also shows in the refusal to take even minimal responsibility for failures and mistakes.
Shiver stop shivering · 2 February 2025 at 00:34
Psychopaths can do a lot of irreversible damage to people and organizations. FWIW, if a place has one in charge of a key management role and wants to save itself and start fresh, might be best for them to either oust them or throw them to the wolves.
Nfti · 28 January 2025 at 07:28
I sense a big cat who did come to ET x
21percent.org · 28 January 2025 at 22:20
Prof Wendy Larner makes a surprise late bid to be the most badass vice chancellor with her announcement of 400 jobs to go at Cardiff University
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k5n0k101lo
The scale of the job cuts is because she has decided that Cardiff University should be running an operating surplus of 12% on income
Spartacus · 29 January 2025 at 22:27
What is the point of a university running a 12% profit? It’s not a company.
1998 · 31 January 2025 at 13:27
FYI : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB3xFqnR7pQ