21 Group

Lavish Vice Chancellor pay has 2 effects

First, it worsens staff morale & destroys public perception of universities

Second, it fosters culture where everyone feels entitled to take what they can. If the leadership does it, why shouldn’t they?

This moral decay is very damaging

Cardiff University defends Kazakhstan campus amid concerns Hundreds of students have started lectures at the new campus, which is 3,712 miles from Cardiff.

Cardiff University's globalist ambitions under fire

Please send VC Wendy Larner, the Board of Trustees & Council members to Astana, Kazakhstan ... permanently

Also add Prof Patrick Minford, the right-wing economist who backed the poll tax & Brexit

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Universities of Dundee, Kent, Brunel, Coventry & Swansea defer pay rises

Kent’s “review in the coming months” is temporal evasion at its finest, while Coventry’s “break even position” heroically rebrands “we won’t pay” as “fiscal courage”

The academic austerity opera continues

This week’s updates:

Sheffield, Dundee, Lancaster, Bangor and Oxford Brookes Universities –- ongoing ballots

Imperial College, Sheffield Hallam and Uni West of Scotland –- strikes being scheduled

Strike action will be endemic across the sector by 2026

New blog posting -- The Alternative Vice Chancellor's Annual Address

Cambridge must end victimising whistleblowers & early-career staff, reform its HR, ditch secrecy, fix pay & improve job security & transparency

Choice is ours -- fairness or silence

21percent.org?p=2757

Teesside told to rethink plans to cut research-focused roles Almost 40 principal lecturer posts affected and 14 jobs lost in planned restructure, while staff at Imperial College London strike over ‘below inflation’ pay offer

It's the classic university definition of restructure: fewer lecturers, more bureaucracy, heavier workloads

Staff must reapply for jobs at Teeside Uni

Restructure means that lecturer jobs will disappear with remaining staff told to do "more with less"

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/teessid...

Wrecking UK universities carries political cost

University vote is heavily concentrated in key constituencies

Will Gov't realise before it’s too late?

They’re too busy chasing the Lab/REFORM swing voter that lives mostly in their spin doctors’ PowerPoints

@bphillipsonmp.bsky.social

New blog posting -- The Alternative Vice Chancellor's Annual Address

Cambridge must end victimising whistleblowers & early-career staff, reform its HR, ditch secrecy, fix pay & improve job security & transparency

Choice is ours -- fairness or silence

21percent.org?p=2757

Teesside told to rethink plans to cut research-focused roles Almost 40 principal lecturer posts affected and 14 jobs lost in planned restructure, while staff at Imperial College London strike over ‘below inflation’ pay offer

It's the classic university definition of restructure: fewer lecturers, more bureaucracy, heavier workloads

Staff must reapply for jobs at Teeside Uni

Restructure means that lecturer jobs will disappear with remaining staff told to do "more with less"

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/teessid...

Wrecking UK universities carries political cost

University vote is heavily concentrated in key constituencies

Will Gov't realise before it’s too late?

They’re too busy chasing the Lab/REFORM swing voter that lives mostly in their spin doctors’ PowerPoints

@bphillipsonmp.bsky.social

In academia, ‘flexible hours’ really just means all hours are work hours

UK universities in or entering heightened stages of industrial action over job losses include:

Bournemouth, Bradford, Durham, Edinburgh, Greenwich, Kingston, Leicester, Lincoln, Liverpool Hope, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth

This will only rise as term progresses

In academia, ‘flexible hours’ really just means all hours are work hours

Student suicides are widely reported — rightly so, or nothing would change

University staff also die by suicide, often due to bullying or excessive workload

Institutions usually hush this up

Reliable statistics are needed amid today’s university stresses

@forthe100.bsky.social

Glasgow University accused of failing student who killed himself on graduation day Ethan Scott Brown was wrongly told he had not earned geography degree despite marks being enough for a 2:1

Student at Glasgow University took his own life after being wrongly told he had not earned geography degree

Three students die each week by suicide in UK universities

Rest in peace, Ethan Scott Brown

@forthe100.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

UK universities in or entering heightened stages of industrial action over job losses include:

Bournemouth, Bradford, Durham, Edinburgh, Greenwich, Kingston, Leicester, Lincoln, Liverpool Hope, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth

This will only rise as term progresses

At a Newspaper, a damaging story about Consigliere University is set to run

The Vice Chancellor pushes to suppress it

Is the story dead?

Institutional complicity added to incompetence?

21percent.org?p=2723

Zero tolerance to bullying & harassment in universities should mean zero victims — not 25%

Instead, it’s complainants & whistleblowers who face zero tolerance ... while bullies & harassers face zero consequences

Universities are rotting from within — symptomatic of a broader collapse in standards in public life

It's time for a revolution: transparency, accountability & individual responsibility in our universities

Senior academic apologises for timetabling chaos at Cardiff University Martin Shipton A senior academic manager at Cardiff University has apologised to staff for major disruption caused by the introduction of a new computer timetabling system before the start of the new ...

Chaos at Cardiff University, courtesy of the 'usual suspects', senior managers + £9m IT project

The ProVC writes "We will undertake a ‘lessons learned’ exercise ..."

Why take responsibility when you can form a new committee to tell you what everyone already knows?

nation.cymru/news/senior-...

At a Newspaper, a damaging story about Consigliere University is set to run

The Vice Chancellor pushes to suppress it

Is the story dead?

Institutional complicity added to incompetence?

21percent.org?p=2723

Zero tolerance to bullying & harassment in universities should mean zero victims — not 25%

Instead, it’s complainants & whistleblowers who face zero tolerance ... while bullies & harassers face zero consequences

Uni spent £80m on controversial campus - but it's not what was first promised Unions partially blame the campus' huge budget for hundreds of job losses

Former VC Shearer West masterminded £80m disaster

She graciously left it behind like an unwanted houseplant when she skipped off to Leeds Uni

Over spend on purchase of site led to many Uni staff losing jobs due to cutbacks to fund it

Strikes continue

www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

University's HR, Legal & senior management are squandering public money in legal cases/employment tribunals

Students, donors & Govt don't want funds wasted to shield poor management from accountability

This scandal explains why Labour Govt has been reluctant to give more funding to Universities

New blog posting

How a University deals with awkward allegations of plagiarism in academia

1 Lie & deny; 2 Attack the accuser; 3 Personal backstory of hardship; 4 Sham investigation

Works for bullying allegations as well

21percent.org?p=2688

Interesting comment on 21 Group blog

21percent.org?p=2666

Oxford Uni Business School Dean Prof Soumitra Dutta quits after harassment ruling -- he had abruptly left Cornell in 2018

Oxbridge is a haven for US professorial sex pests with a taste for port & bad plumbing

@the1752group.bsky.social

Uni spent £80m on controversial campus - but it's not what was first promised Unions partially blame the campus' huge budget for hundreds of job losses

Former VC Shearer West masterminded £80m disaster

She graciously left it behind like an unwanted houseplant when she skipped off to Leeds Uni

Over spend on purchase of site led to many Uni staff losing jobs due to cutbacks to fund it

Strikes continue

www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

Voice of Victim

"My university's highly paid senior management pours money into consultancy firms

The one group of people who are least likely to solve complex HE sector problems is consultants

A huge squandering of money"

Voice of Victim

"I raised a Grievance at my university against my bullying Head of Department, a very senior Prof

HR shut me up

They made me sick. They made me fail. They destroyed me

I used to be so full of confidence

Now I am a wreck. Unemployed. Needing help"

Voice of Victim

"My university's highly paid senior management pours money into consultancy firms

The one group of people who are least likely to solve complex HE sector problems is consultants

A huge squandering of money"