21percent.org. The 21 Group

A staff group founded at Cambridge in 2023, supporting members facing institutional retaliation.

Recent posts

169
Blog · 6 Mar 2025

From Postdoc to Where ? 

In October 2023, Oxford University and College Union (UCU) published a report on the effects of casualisation at the University. They found over 66% of academics employed by Oxford University are on fixed-term contracts. Similarly, Cambridge’s…

170
Blog · 1 Mar 2025

The Muskrat … and other Rodents

The Royal Society elected Elon Musk into a Fellowship in 2018. Musk was honoured for his work in technology and engineering, particularly in the fields of space exploration and sustainable energy, This has become a controversial…

171
Blog · 26 Feb 2025

Keeping the Secrets Safe

A Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) is a formal request made by an individual (the “data subject”) to an organization, asking to access the personal data the organization holds about them. This request is a key…

172
Blog · 23 Feb 2025

The Prancing Butchers of Cardiff

From 1 September 2023, the Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University has been the New Zealander, Prof Wendy Larner. During Larner’s tenure as Provost at Victoria University of Wellington (2015–2023), the university faced financial challenges that led…

173
Blog · 20 Feb 2025

The World of Bullshitmore

Papermilling is a dubious research practice. It refers to situations in which research processes or findings are conducted in a way that is questionable, misleading or lacking integrity. This includes unethical practices, exploitation of students and postdocs,…

174
Blog · 16 Feb 2025

The Chief People Officer, the Architect of Spin

Cuts, “voluntary severances” and redundancies dominate the UK higher education landscape. But not for all.  The management bloat in UK universities continues to swell even as lecturers & researchers are made unemployed. The University of Nottingham…

175
Blog · 13 Feb 2025

A London Tragedy

Given the turmoil in Higher Education, the 21 Group is looking at the background and behaviour of some of our very well-rewarded Vice Chancellors. We started with Professor Colin Bailey, President and Principal of Queen Mary,…

176
Blog · 9 Feb 2025

The Making of the Unnecessary Necessary

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…

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