{"id":3216,"date":"2026-02-11T12:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:14:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:14:04","slug":"attack-on-tenure-at-the-cambridge-vet-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3216","title":{"rendered":"Attack on Tenure at the Cambridge Vet School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Before 1988, academics in permanent posts in the UK could only be dismissed for serious wrongdoing or failure to perform their duties. This gave them strong protection comparable to tenured professors in North America. The Education Reform Act of 1988 changed this by permitting redundancies on standard ’employment law’ grounds, meaning that universities can eliminate posts if they decide to scale back or discontinue certain activities. Since then, the strength of a UK academic\u2019s position has depended less on a concept like \u201ctenure\u201d and more on the governance structures of their particular institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crucial feature of the 1988 framework is that redundancies must be approved by a university\u2019s governing body rather than imposed solely by senior executives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where Oxford and Cambridge stand apart<\/strong>. Their governing assemblies \u2014 Oxford\u2019s Congregation<\/a> and Cambridge\u2019s Regent House <\/a>\u2014 are very large bodies composed substantially of academics and college officers. In principle, these assemblies function as the ultimate decision-making authorities within their universities. Any move to close whole departments requires the endorsement of these broad, academically constituted bodies. The academic community itself effectively holds a veto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This historical tradition of collective self-government means that employment protections at Oxford and Cambridge are arguably comparable to tenure at the elite North American institutions. Elsewhere in the UK, governance is more managerial. At all other UK universities, academics make up a smaller proportion of governing bodies, weakening the collective academic oversight that exists at Oxbridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has been widely reported by the BBC<\/a> and the Times Higher Education<\/a>, the University of Cambridge is seeking to close its Vet School and stop the teaching of Veterinary Science. This has prompted the setting up of a campaign group, Save the Vet School <\/a>, as well as an Open Letter from the British Veterinary Association.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our concern here is not whether the Vet School should close, but rather with the dangerous precedent that the University is seeking to establish to facilitate its closure.To circumvent a vote at Regent House, the General Board of the University is mischievously seeking to discontinue undergraduate admissions, as reported by Varsity.<\/a> This effectively would seal the fate of the Vet School, after the current cohort of students have completed their undergraduate course. To many Cambridge academics, this seems to be an attempt to shut the Vet School in a way that sidesteps the proper oversight of Regent House. It is an attack on what remains of the concept of tenure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prof Mark Holmes, the head of the Veterinary Medicine Department, told Varsity<\/em> that he too has heard \u201calmost nothing\u201d about the decision to delay making any offers for the 2026 cohort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that \u201cthe University are doing everything they can to stop the course without going to Regent House\u201d \u2013 which is the governing body of the University \u2013 because \u201cthey know that they won\u2019t have the votes to close the course\u201d. Holmes described such moves as \u201cundemocratic and uncollegiate\u201d [Varsity]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Irrespective of whether the Vet School should close or not, it is in the interest of all academics that the proper processes are followed and there is full scrutiny of any decision<\/strong>. Accordingly, we urge members of Regent House to sign the Grace initiated by Dr Stephen Cowley as soon possible. If you are a member of Regent House, the Grace is accessible here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The image of the Vet School was taken by John Sutton<\/a> and is reproduced under  Creative Commons<\/a> Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic<\/a> license)
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Before 1988, academics in permanent posts in the UK could only be dismissed for serious wrongdoing or failure to perform their duties. This gave them strong protection comparable to tenured professors in North America. The Education Reform Act of 1988 changed this by permitting redundancies on standard ’employment law’ grounds, […]<\/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-3216","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\/3216","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=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}