The Dean of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Prof Soumitra Dutta, has resigned after three years in the role. According to Bloomberg, an investigation upheld three harassment policy breaches reported by a female academic.
Prof Dutta’s name has been removed from the Said Business School webpages, though Balliol College has not been so swift in the cancelling. (Later edit: Balliol woke up)
The Oxford Spin Machine has been working in overdrive.
Remarkably, it is not even clear from Bloomberg’s article that the harassment was sexual, save from the University’s own oblique statement.
The university has a “strong framework of support in place for staff and students who feel they have been subject to harassment,” the statement said, adding that it does not tolerate sexual misconduct and that it is committed to promoting a safe, positive environment. The institution does not comment on “confidential HR or grievance matters” [quoted by Katherine Griffiths, Bloomberg]
The victim is rightly not named, but there is no indication of how bad the offences were. Given that Universities normally hush these things up — for example, the London School of Economics here — we can only conclude that the matter was unhushable.
In other words, very serious indeed.
The case is also reported in the Times Higher Education here. Again, the fact that this was sexual harassment (SH) is only discernible through the comments from Prof Anna Bull of York University. She leads the 1752 Group (which supports victims of SH in academia).
Prof Anna Bull clearly knows a lot about the case. The comments she makes are much stronger and do not match up with the articles.
Bull said that Dutta’s departure sent “mixed messages”, including about the sanctions that were applied by universities in sexual harassment cases. She argued that Oxford needed to “undertake a significant programme of work” to protect victims of harassment. [Juliette Rowsell, Times Higher Education]
The 21 Group is aware of multiple ongoing SH cases at Oxford University, so we are in complete agreement with Prof Anna Bull’s withering assessment. Maybe prioritising the victims and the whistleblowers rather than the harasser would be a start.
It’s another opportunity lost due to capitulation to pressure from Oxford University.
The copyright on the image of the Said Business School is owned by Philip Halling and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license here
Oxford’s spin machine is ticking over very nicely. If you’re not looking closely, just seems like Prof Dutta has been reassigned to do some specially important projects elsewhere and is a bit too busy to run the Saïd anymore.
Cambridge’s spin machine is rattling and wheezy. This year, Cambridge has rarely been out of the press with stories of the Vice Chancellor’s excessive pay, bullying & harassment, a shambolic Chancellorship election, hushing up the Staff Culture Survey, the Magdalen Connolly case …. & now a major new breaking scandal is about to drop.
Irene Tracey plus William Hague are the A Team. Debbie Prentice plus Chris Smith are the Z Team
I noticed early this morning that nurse Emily was busy in the internet, while she should be on long sick leave. I wondered if the scandal was about to burst…
She sure picked the wrong day to come back to work.
Scandal is on the desk of the proVCs.
Now I understand why she got offline very quickly 😂
Where was Teddy when all this was going on?
Teddy Bear has not been seen around the department for months.
Teddy Bear cannot be involved in all cases guys… He is probably having some rest now. It is, however, ironic that I know Teddy Bear and Concerned Face for different reasons, I moved from the School of the latter where my circus happened, to the School of the former! How ironic is this!??! I promise I did not know they were good friends…
“I did not know they were good friends”
“Were” is the really important word here!
Interesting. Next time I see Concerned Face I will ask him what happened. I am technically forbidden to talk to him, but I saw him a few days ago on the street, smiled with my best smile and said hello. His answer was hilarious: “I will not tell anyone about this.” As if I cared!
“The institution does not comment on “confidential HR or grievance matters””
Where did I hear this before… Confidentiality is the best ally of a corrupt institution. It is sad to read this from Oxford being an alumnus from there who never experienced or witnessed misconduct while a member. But knowing in firsthand what is currently happening in Cambridge, and that the two universities have so many commonalities, I should have thought that their approach to misconduct is not substantially different. I hope I am wrong because I keep very fond memories from Oxford.
Confidentiality in HR matters is a bluff.
It’s unenforceable and it’s mainly used to protect HR and Senior Management from the consequences of all their terrible blunders.
Very true. Only then we understand this approach:
If you are a victim, you are told that you cannot talk about the abuse to protect the reputation of the potential abuser; but if you are a potential abuser, you are told that you cannot talk about the abuse because… not really clear.
If a postgraduate student is being investigated for allegedly abusive behaviour against the Vice-Chancellor, all the Pro-Vice Chancellors, the Academic Secretary, the Registrary, all university HR, a full Department, the Head of the Education Services, the Head of OSCCA and a Case Handler appointed by the Academic Secretary, why can the postgraduate student talk about it? It is really puzzling…
can’t
I’m aware of a case where the corruption and blunders of senior management and HR were so far off the scale in their execution of a Professorial whistleblower, that senior management and HR went as far as warning the entire department not to ever speak about it. Perhaps they feared being questioned about why this was allowed to happen to this particular academic. Or perhaps the aim was to protect those few that were recruited to carry out a malicious mobbing attack, which is a primary instrument for management and HR to dispose of Whistleblowers (such attacks are particularly easy to orchestrate by HR and management when the organisation is on the brink of financial collapse – where some staff are more likely to participate in such activity to stave off compulsory redundancy, for example).
In any case, everything will be in the public domain soon enough, and the department in question will quite rightly feel aggrieved, as HR and management were clearly putting them at risk in numerous ways, including as potential victims of mobbing from these same individuals.
These people are ridiculous, seriously. I would love to be one of the receivers of such a largescale warning. Mostly likely I would forward it to all Heads of Department of all Departments of Cambridge even if that meant having “urgent precautionary measures.” I followed that “request” once because I was naïve. It will not happen again, and the university knows that.
I think the point has been made in a previous thread… that here most of the cases revolve around allegations of nepotism and discrimination in hiring / promotion, whereas at “the other place” there are more allegations of harassment. This is probably also consistent with our struggle to remain research competitive in global rankings. For my part I know of countless instances of each. For years I thought these would be exposed (especially in 2017) and yet somehow they never were.
Cambridge breeds bullies best,
Oxford has more sex pests.
Oxford has more sex pests than Cambridge?!??! Well done Cambridge!!! It is unfortunate that we do not know how many NDAs are produced about that and other abuses…. If we had access to that data, perhaps the ranking would be different.
That was quick! Balliol College have removed the link
It’s available at the Wayback Machine here
https://web.archive.org/web/20250101213937/https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/professor-soumitra-dutta
The Researcher, as you have been gagged, you’ll be delighted to hear the University taking its obligations under Freedom of Speech, ahem, seriously. This has just been announced for what are called “senior academic leaders”
To Heads of academic faculties and departments, Heads and Secretaries of Schools, College Heads of House
Dear colleagues,
You are invited to an online workshop on freedom of speech for senior academic leaders. There are two sessions available, both with the same speakers and agenda:
Monday 13 October, 10.30am-12pm Sign up
Friday 17 October, 1.30-3pm Sign up
These sessions are an opportunity to learn more about the duties placed on universities under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, to hear what Cambridge is doing in response, and to ask questions and discuss issues among peers. The sessions will include breakout rooms to discuss some of the example scenarios in the Office for Students (OfS) free speech guidance.
The main speaker will be Smita Jamdar, Partner and Head of Education at Shakespeare Martineau, who will brief you on the legal and regulatory aspects. I will chair the session and speak to the University’s work in this area, and colleagues from Legal Services and Governance and Compliance will be on hand to answer questions.
I think these will be extremely useful and interesting sessions for all of us, and I hope to see many of you there.
Oh, that is very interesting indeed! “Heads of House” too? In that case, one can perhaps contact the Master of St Machiavelli’s College and ask him to stop by. Of course, that was just a story and any similarities to actual persons is purely coincidental, but in any case, I will remind one Master that I know to make sure he does not miss that event!
Please do go to such an event and ask questions. For example, ask if the university delete a post from a member who suggested that HR should read this article in the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/apr/12/cambridge-university-accused-of-bullying-cover-up-as-internal-survey-revealed) before suggesting more luring surveys. I am pretty sure that they do not want me there.
Wait, this is better than I thought, “colleagues from Legal Services and Governance and Compliance will be on hand to answer questions”? Please do not forget to ask the Legal Services if the university can enforce confidentiality and the legal basis for it. If they remember they received that question recently, say hi on my behalf.
Fuck Shakespeare Martineau!
What have they done now? Are they involved in all these other cases too?
One of the individuals working at SM is completely candid
Off the record, he’ll tell you that the university treats its staff like shit
“the university treats its staff like shit”
That is news!
Cambridge and many other universities have contracts with SM.
SM (& DWF) are clear benefactors of the corrupt / incompetent HR regimes in universities.
Not all cases though – what I heard was that they are relying on other firms now
I wonder about the backstory there…
This is true. The present management of HR has generated a tsunami of cases for SM, they just can’t cope.
We are aware Bristow’s is being used
https://www.bristows.com/expertise/
Any others — please post the names.
We might as well learn who are monetising the University’s suffering
“The present management of HR has generated a tsunami of cases for SM, they just can’t cope”
What really needs to be emphasised here is how they have made a bloody mess for everyone.
Namely:
– Grievance mismanagement has overwhelmed the data compliance office with GDPRs that never would have been required if they had just resolved or mediated problems as they are meant to
– Legal overwhelmed with court cases that never would have been necessary if statues had been upheld
– Committees overwhelmed with appeals and complaints over problems that HR has created
– Teaching and research stagnating as staff are stressed and unable to focus on their core career goals
– Budgets disrupted due to blocking of grants donations and scholarships
– Health services overwhelmed with staff who are sick and anxious due to multiyear HR investigations and retaliation
– Press office inundated as media investigate the cases
All the while the HR budget gets larger and larger yet they spend it all on PR / workshops / “reimaging professional services” / set their accounts to out of office autoreply for anyone asks them to do their actual core job responsibility
This is a superb summary — we agree with every word. HR are destroying the university from within. There needs to be changes to the processes and changes to the people running HR.
I have been in touch with them. Very friendly. Early this week they sent me a witness statement from the most discussed Lead HR Business Partner of the 21 Group. I did not even open that document because I already know what to expect, a very truthful statement written by the Lead HR Business Partner of the 21 Group and her only. I encouraged Shakespeare Martineau to keep an eye on the scandals that are about to burst in Cambridge. Hopefully, we will have the time to discuss these scandals when we meet.
Rule #1 for all press officers – do not become part of the story
Rule #1 for all solicitors – do not become part of the case
I think they know better than anyone by now what a nightmare this all is
I encouraged the solicitor who contacted me for her to specifically keep an eye on a case I knew she is involved in, which should have been published in the Guardian by the time of the elections for Chancellor but was gagged for the time being. I told her that I hoped that all these scandals currently in the background will be out by the time I will meet her in person so that we have a bit of fun discussing our experiences.
The ProVCs are stunned. The Press Office is in panic. A number of high ranking individuals are heavily exposed …
Tick, tock, tick, tock …
I trust the 21 Group will tell us when we can celebrate. Very many senior members of Cambridge, including the VC, were yesterday in an event in King’s College on “Innovation.” I was told that the VC’s speech was very good… Someone should tell her about the good news. I will gadly inform a certain Master, member of the University Council, who did not see it coming.
“The ProVCs are stunned. The Press Office is in panic”
Does anyone have more info on this? All the rest of us get is either no response or those generic canned messages reminding us how “seriously” the university takes incidents of bullying blah blah blah.
I did hear the press office were in disarray but only via the dinner table… It seems everyone is talking but each version slightly different… admittedly with a few common themes.
At the moment, there are two major scandals that the University is busy trying to keep out of the press (& they don’t even involve the scandal-riddled Institute of Astronomy or CRUK-Cam).
“there are two major scandals that the University is busy trying to keep out of the press”
What we really need to know is if that is even possible. Please do not let that happen!
The American Queen is clueless! The American Queen is clueless! The American Queen is clueless! The American Queen is clueless! The American Queen is clueless!
UCam is a toxic place! UCam is a toxic place! UCam is a toxic place! UCam is a toxic place!
Bloody right!
Is the 21Percent group aware of this article from… 2018?!
https://www.clearadmit.com/2018/01/johnson-college-of-business-dean-resigns/
Inaugural Dean of Cornell’s Johnson College of Business Steps Down Abruptly, No Reason Given
…the official university response to questions has been that Cornell “does not comment on private personnel matters,” the Sun reported. Dutta has not responded to emails. His wife, Lourdes Casanova, a senior lecturer at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, also declined to comment when approached by reporters at the couple’s home yesterday evening
Thank you for this interesting link. We were not aware of this
It looks like Cornell “passed the harasser” onto Oxford
Questions need to be asked as to how he was appointed to Oxford — who was on the appointments committee? We will put in a FoI request
There is an established pattern of professors who were found guilty of harassment and abuse in the United States seeking to transfer over to Oxbridge. Why else would they take such huge pay cuts to come over to dinky little England? I will tell you why – little effective freedom of speech for victims seeking to call out abuse (e.g. on social media), and institutional backing for aggressive defamation lawsuits when needed.
That is an extremely interesting observation, highly relevant to the case at the Said Business School. Thanks.
Oh yes. There are some Oxford colleges that function like “asylum hotels” for those on the run from US campus justice… albeit with a somewhat better wine selection and significantly worse central heating
What surprises me is that the Oxford people don’t appear to have conducted due diligence before hiring Dutta. The fact that he was summarily fired by Cornell mid-semester with no reason given “we don’t comment on personnel matters…” should have raised red flags. They could have made some subtle inquiries around Cornell and they would have very quickly found out that sexual harassment was the motivation for his dismissal.
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