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
21 Comments
Weeb · 15 September 2025 at 14:37
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
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 16:07
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…
YumYum · 15 September 2025 at 16:49
She sure picked the wrong day to come back to work.
Scandal is on the desk of the proVCs.
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 16:57
Now I understand why she got offline very quickly 😂
Father Ted · 15 September 2025 at 18:03
Where was Teddy when all this was going on?
Historian · 15 September 2025 at 18:28
Teddy Bear has not been seen around the department for months.
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 18:52
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…
Historian · 15 September 2025 at 19:56
“I did not know they were good friends”
“Were” is the really important word here!
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 22:13
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!
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 14:38
“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.
21percent.org · 15 September 2025 at 14:42
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.
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 15:23
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…
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 15:27
can’t
Anonymous · 15 September 2025 at 16:42
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.
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 16:53
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.
Cordelia · 16 September 2025 at 14:44
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.
21percent.org · 16 September 2025 at 15:14
Cambridge breeds bullies best,
Oxford has more sex pests.
21percent.org · 15 September 2025 at 14:50
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
FreeSpeechAbsolutist · 15 September 2025 at 18:54
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.
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 19:24
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.
TheResearcher · 15 September 2025 at 19:38
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.