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 putting a gun to the Heads of the Biological Sciences Departments. They were told that they would have to carry the Vet School’s debt and pay for new Vet School buildings (~£20m). It is well known that the University want the Vet School off the West Cambridge site so they can commercially develop the land. So, of course, the Heads of Department voted to close the Vet School because they did not want to carry the debt (two Heads abstained).
The Head of School of Biological Sciences, Professor Jon Simons, then issued this email
All options were explored in-depth and weighed up carefully against the school’s strategic vision and plan, their implications for teaching and research, financial impact, and achievable implementation, either within the university or through external partnerships. After careful consideration, it was concluded that there was no viable long-term solution.
“We understand that this is a difficult time for colleagues and students in the veterinary school and are putting in place support structures for both staff and students who may be affected. [Professor Jon Simons, Head of the School of the Biological Sciences]
There are no Vet Schools in the bigger universities in London e.g. Imperial or UCL. There is none in Oxford. Universities that do offer the subject include Edinburgh, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Aberystwyth and Surrey, as well as the Royal Veterinary College. An obvious concern is whether the national supply of vets is affected by this decision. There seems to have been no cooperation or consultation at a national level.
The other concern is the fairness of the process. The University want the Vet School to move (which perhaps does make sense). Yet the cost of the new buildings is being pushed in its entirety onto to the School of Biological Sciences and ultimately the Vet School itself. The Vet School is being moved at the behest of the University, which might reasonably enough be expected to contribute to the finances as they will use the land for other purposes.
We were not expecting – and were not even given an opportunity to consider how we would react to – a recommendation of closure.
We would and will oppose it with all the means at our disposal, in the interests of our students, of veterinary science and of the animals treated by our outstanding experts.
Unless the university pauses this flawed process, a great and irreparable injustice will be done to hundreds of staff and students, present and future, as well as to the reputation of Cambridge as a world leader in sciences of every type. [Statement from Vet School]
We agree that this is a serious injustice.
Those who run Cambridge University are becoming increasingly dictatorial. This is seen in the undermining of the successful Graces on the restriction of the use of injunctions and the naming of the Guild of Benefactors. It is seen in the running of the ‘out of control’ HR department with its double-speaking Pro Vice Chancellor.
Our view is that the University needs to return to a self-governing community of scholars. At the moment, the default position of the administration to concerned academics is one of extreme haughtiness and irritation.
Either we are on the same team, or we are not.
If we are on the same team, then don’t treat us like this.
(Image licensed under Creative Commons)
21 Comments
Eileen Nugent · 13 December 2025 at 02:57
If the UK needs veterinary schools to function at a very basic level – i.e. for the continuous production of food and to ensure food security – then the test for the closure of a veterinary school is its size and performance relative to other veterinary schools in the UK. On that basis the closure of the vet school is unjustifiable.
That is a constraint on any organisational decision that can be taken in relation to that particular school, a constraint which does not exist for some other departments/schools within the university.
The School of Biological Sciences has its strategic vision and plan but based on the available evidence in relation to the vet school its strategic vision and plan has not taken into account constraints on the decisions that it can take in relation to each subunit of the School of Biological Sciences without which its strategic plan has a lower probability of being put into action and its strategic vision a lower probability of being realised.
Eileen Nugent · 13 December 2025 at 03:09
£20 million, a single racehorse sold for £55 million, at those prices the vet school could breed some racehorses an fund the building that way.
Eileen Nugent · 13 December 2025 at 03:18
Breeding horses to fund the building is not a serious point but the serious point is that if a society can find £55 million for one racehorse but not £20 million to keep a high performing veterinary medicine school open then there is something wrong with that society.
SPARTACUS · 13 December 2025 at 08:57
The Doors (Jim Morrison):
“This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes again
Can you picture what will be?
So limitless and free
Desperately in need
Of some stranger’s hand
In a desperate land …()”
No more words needed for this disgraceful regime!
Savers! · 13 December 2025 at 09:07
The @21percent.org could play a very important role in deposing the American Queen and her oligarchs: start a petition for the Chancellor to take over the reins! The Statutes allow for that! He is the Chair of Council!
21percent.org · 13 December 2025 at 09:38
There was an Advance Notice published yesterday in the Cambridge Reporter of a Topic of Concern regarding the Vet School
https://www.reporter.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/topic-vet-course-20251212.pdf
The Discussion is likely scheduled for Tuesday 13 January (it has to be before the meeting of the General Board).
Given that this is in the vacation, we understand that this Discussion may well take place online, so it’s easy to join & comment.
We agree with @Savers! that Cambridge University is rudderless, and someone needs to take control.
Eileen Nugent · 13 December 2025 at 14:53
What did Regent House do to save the university in its moment of crisis? It chose to do nothing about university non compliance with a re-engagement order obtained from an employment tribunal by a former Chair of the Board of Scrutiny and to instead focus on getting rid of the current VC. No real evidence of any culture change then. Next unfairly dismissed person, same organisational response as before.
The university can sign itself up to as many [insert trendy support initiative here] as it likes – if a person can be dismissed by the university with no real checks and balances being applied in any dismissal situation then it doesn’t matter what the university has signed itself up to because there is no way to hold the university to account for any actions that it takes that contradict with what it has signed itself up for.
MUSKETEER · 13 December 2025 at 10:01
Nobody could imagine that this oligarchy would descend so low! How is this even being discussed is amazing! UCam has lost it under this regime. VC, ProVCs, Council, Registrary, Head of HR and Head of Legal all need to go! Lord Smith the Chancellor if he has any dignity will have to step in! The Statutes allow it! An interim administration needs to be installed and a search for a new VC started.
TheResearcher · 13 December 2025 at 11:46
“Those who run Cambridge University are becoming increasingly dictatorial.”
This is very true, but to a level that is becoming seriously pathetic. I am forbidden from contacting hundreds of people, including “Any HR staff from the University of Cambridge” and “Any staff from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.” Because I have a manuscript with people from DAMTP where I am the last and corresponding author that needs to be published urgently, a Professor from DAMTP has been helping me with that issue. In one of the most ridiculous letters I received from UCam, I was warned that I could only talk about science with him otherwise my “precautionary measures” would get worse! Rest assured, I ignored that letter.
The situation is getting out of control as this oligarchy lost all sense of dignity and respect. I am very sad for what is happening in the Vet School and I worry the situation will get worse and worse until the incompetent and corrupt leaders of UCam are sacked. They really have to go ASAP!
Annoyed · 13 December 2025 at 12:02
A 50 member grace vote of no confidence in the council would do the trick
D'ARTAGNAN · 13 December 2025 at 12:43
If @21percent starts this many will sign.
conspirator · 13 December 2025 at 13:19
“All warfare is based on deception. When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near,” (Art of War, Sun Tzu)
Interested · 13 December 2025 at 13:08
What’s the basis for this statement ? Is it in Statutes & Ordinances somewhere ?
Annoyed · 13 December 2025 at 15:25
I cant quote statutes to you – others know them far better than I
My understanding is that the Regent House could vote no confidence in the Council and this would trigger fresh elections. If the vote was centered on the VC and P-VCs they would be in an untenable position and have to resign.
The more likely outcome is if the vote of no confidence is widely supported the leadership would go before a vote.
But – i am based in West Cambridge- the discontent and anger at the Council and VC is widespread and I think any grace vote would likely be won, however there is also a lot of fear of retribution and so I think the biggest hurdle will be in getting 50 people to openly sign the grace and force a vote
SPARTACUS · 13 December 2025 at 16:03
If 21percent.org creates a ‘safe haven’ for people to register and sign it can then send in all the signatures only when it has the required number. I agree there is FEAR but we trust 21percent.org! I believe hundreds will sign if they feel SAFE.
The current oligarchy has reached the end of the line! Multiple scandals, dictatorial attitude, incompetence, Reform/Farage leak and now this outrage of the Vet School. VC and her lot MUST go! Let’s do this!
TheResearcher · 13 December 2025 at 17:14
I am happy to sign regardless of the consequences. UCam cannot retaliate much more against me as there is not much more left they can do and I already talked publicly about some of issues in the last Discussion in the Senate House about the Thirtieth Report of the Board of Scrutiny. I also contacted Daniel Zeichner MP following the suggestion of the 21 Group here (https://21percent.org/?p=2983), and I encourage all people who were deeply affected by UCam to do the same. Please do not be intimidated by these people and do not choose silence because that is exactly what the university—read, the incompetent and corrupt leadership of UCam—wants.
Eileen Nugent · 13 December 2025 at 18:59
Regent House voted to keep an Employer Justified Retirement Age (EJRA) for academic staff. Based on the evidence in cases generated by an EJRA policy in Oxford in addition to one case generated in Cambridge, keeping EJRA in Cambridge – a comparator organisation to Oxford – as a organisational policy is known to have a high potential to generate a substantive unfair dismissal.
Oxford has a history of compliance with reinstatement orders from employment tribunals whereas Cambridge has a history of non compliance with the same type of order. The difference in work-related stress generated by a difference in a combined organisational factor [organisational policy coupled with an organisational default] that relates to the EJRA policy means that the decision taken by Regent House on the EJRA – in the absence of any detailed consideration of the implications of the MacKenzie case outcome – is potentially unsafe as the reasoning presented failed to take into account differences in work-related stress regulation in Oxford (only other UK university that now has EJRA policy in higher education) and in Cambridge. It also failed to adequately consider the need for some uniformity in higher education staff working conditions across the higher education sector.
In Oxford the use of an EJRA has been judged to be legal in some cases and illegal in other cases. Oxford at least has a functioning correction mechanism – history of compliance with reinstatement orders – in cases where any dismissal arising from an EJRA is judged to be illegal. In Cambridge it could be illegal in a higher fraction of cases or potentially all cases because of this combination of factors (i) history of non-compliance with reinstatement orders increases uncertainty/stress at all points in any employment case – an employment situation that lasts multiple years – if reinstatement if being sought as an effective remedy in the case [highly likely in EJRA cases] (ii) there is no functioning correction mechanism in cases of substantive unfair dismissal in Cambridge. This means a person would have to go back to the University to try to get a correction in a case of substantive unfair dismissal in circumstances where the person before them failed to get the substantive unfair dismissal corrected i.e. to get the university to comply with the type of order they have secured from the employment tribunal.
Regent house trying to force a vote where a potential outcome of that vote is a substantive unfair dismissal without doing any detailed organisational work on the implications of the outcome in the MacKenzie case for all staff in the organisation has the potential to trigger an external regulatory intervention.
Eileen Nugent · 13 December 2025 at 19:17
More than 800 years of continuous self-governance.
“Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
WB Yeats
IMAGINARY · 13 December 2025 at 13:16
@21Those who run Cambridge University are becoming increasingly dictatorial. This is seen in the undermining of the successful Graces on the restriction of the use of injunctions and the naming of the Guild of Benefactors. It is seen in the running of the ‘out of control’ HR department with its double-speaking Pro Vice Chancellor.
IMAGINARY · 13 December 2025 at 13:33
In summary: the only option left is regime change! Boston tea party style! American Queen and all her cadres must go!
What will Profs Drinkalot, Teflon, ViciousWoman, Crookery and Smallman do?? They will lose their protection! Tic toc tic toc tic toc… BOOOOOOOM
SPARTACUS · 13 December 2025 at 19:09
SaveUs! · 12 December 2025 at 21:03
UCam has gone into a lunatic azilum state! The oligarchy wants to close the Vet School!