{"id":3038,"date":"2025-12-13T01:55:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3038"},"modified":"2025-12-13T08:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T08:53:13","slug":"power-play-at-the-cambridge-vet-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3038","title":{"rendered":"Power Play at the Cambridge Vet School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The oligarchy has come back for the Cambridge Vet School,<\/a> as reported here<\/a> by the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 (~\u00a320m). 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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Head of School of Biological Sciences, Professor Jon Simons, then issued this email<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All options were explored in-depth and weighed up carefully against the school\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe 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]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were not expecting \u2013 and were not even given an opportunity to consider how we would react to \u2013 a recommendation of closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We agree that this is a serious injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either we are on the same team, or we are not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we are on the same team, then don’t treat us like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Image licensed under Creative Commons)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3038"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3054,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions\/3054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}