We 'support staff to feel & perform at their best as part of the University community' says University of Oxford

Here's our wellbeing logo

The Gazillionaire University then breaks employment law & attacks the individuals who took them to court

#academia

Rebecca Abrams Alice Jolly

Vogue magazine now has more credibility on #whistleblowing than the #NHS and #universities

Full credit to Marina Wheeler QC & The Labour Party

Action on workplace bullying / harassment is such an easy win for a political party. It's not costly to fix this

#academia #Whistleblower

Here's a grim document on Australian science early career researchers

'48 % of respondents said they had experienced bullying'

' #Academia rewards those who abuse, steal, falsify & destroy others to claim fame. Psychopathic personalities get an edge'

biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Another bullying scandal at Universiteit Leiden

There is more external scrutiny at Dutch universities

The Dutch are serious about rooting out bullying & harassment

There are just as many Professors who create a 'culture of fear' in UK #universities . They are protected

#academia

Data on bullying & harassment are not hard to gather if will is there

21group is writing to UK universities with questions under Freedom of Information Act

21percent.org/?p=945

We look forward to cooperation with universities in tackling this scourge

#academia

'We know where the money goes: [...} It pays for the Starbucks our vice-chancellors love so much. It pays for the sushi bars they think will attract a 'high caliber' of student. It pays the inflated salaries of the upper administration“.

okdoomer.io/im-a-professor…

Academics work for decades on contracts & then (if lucky) get a job

#University administrators settle down & move up (admin is expanding). Soon, they are senior managers on 6 figures

Who pays whom? It is research & teaching that bring in money

Who is firing whom?

#academia

Very sad

#Universities take the benefits of success, but absolve themselves of responsibility for the long-term survival & future of those contributing to the success

Risk is entirely borne by the fixed-term researcher

#academia

It's an evisceration of UK's progressional & executive class

Vennells then getting CBE, chair of NHS trust, two directorships, member of Cabinet Office & shortlisted for Bishop of London is too extreme for satire

But it happened !

#PostOfficeScandal

'VC salaries double those of PMs & premiers ... #Universities spending 100s millions of dollars hiring consultants ...secrecy shrouds private funding ...Universities not reporting data on sexual violence'

All too familiar.

Is the contagion everywhere?

#academia

#University management specialises in unsupported assertions & blanket denials that ignore the facts

It is the 21st century equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat despite all the evidence

Any dispute with senior management is draining & time-consuming

#academia

FOI is crucial in holding executive to account in #universities

Information on redundancies, senior management pay, finances & grievance statistics should be public accessible

Very wrong for valid FOI requests to be ruled 'vexatious' or 'troublesome'

Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco

#academia

Hiding behind confidentiality is a key mechanism for enabling a host of egregious practices and allowing covers-up of all sorts. It's not just HR.

At University of Aberdeen , the vexatious threshold for FOI requests is 34 requests since 1 January 2023

At Cambridge University , the threshold is just 12 FOI requests from Nov 2021 to Feb 2023 ....

#academia #academictwitter

University’s head of HR said contract void

Adjudicator decided this was 'no way for an employer to treat an employee... it lacks dignity, decency and reasonability'

Many #University administrators are Trump-ian.

Like the Donald, they think they're above the law ...

#academia

Bullying is abundant in #Universities (eg UCU's survey)

Rather than tweeting, show us statistics

How many bullying incidents are there ? Was anyone disciplined? Are victims satisfied with outcome?

Universities won't answer these questions

It's all spin Universities UK

An Honorary Fellow of St Peter's

Honorary Fellowships should be discontinued

Just like Honorary degrees, this is something given to you for which you have not done the work. Or do no work.

#academia

The HR Directors of most #Universities make Boris Johnson look highly competent

'Confidential HR processes' are confidential so the terrible HR blunders can all be covered up

#academia

'Secrecy prevents seeing patterns of abuse

Head of Dept bullied a (female) postdoc. #University said it was a private quarrel

Later we learnt he bullied his PA & Head of IT, both female

Cases were treated separately. Together, we see this as misogynistic bullying'

#academia

Voice of a victim

'It's like the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

We have a world class University with a corrupt & malign administration.'

#academia #academictwitter