In the Dark

Professor Wyn Evans is in the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.

–0–

My article on Bullying in the UK Universities is in The Times Higher Education Supplement this week.  

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/bullying-feature-uk-research-universities-not-bug

It is a bleak assessment. If you are being bullied or harassed, either move University or get a lawyer. If you can’t afford a lawyer, join a trade union who will supply you with a lawyer.  

Whatever you do, don’t pin your hopes on your University’s shallow pretence of a grievance procedure. 

Three years ago, Unite, UNISON and UCU carried out an investigation into bullying at Cambridge University. The survey found nearly one in three had either been the victims of bullying and victimisation or had witnessed it in the previous 18 months.  

Over half thought there was no point in reporting it, as either nothing would be done or the perpetrator would retaliate. It is a grim reckoning, but all too realistic. 

Whilst preparing my article for THES, I came across an earlier, shocking article by Prof Athene Donald in The Guardian. 

Prof Donald describes an incident in her career when she was already a senior Professor. The title says it all: “I reported harassment and was silenced – and I’m a senior academic”. 

Though this incident occurred some time ago, nothing much seems to have changed at Cambridge University. 

If someone like Prof Athene Donald DBE, FRS and Master of Churchill cannot get the system to work, then a postdoc or a graduate student will certainly not. And a member of the professional services support staff will have zero chance. 

Prof Donald has diagnosed the problem accurately. 

“Likewise, if direction from the top suggests that the complainant is more expendable than the accused, there may be a subliminal steer towards finding in favour of the latter. It is too easy to conclude that the evidence is not strong enough to prove anything definitively, and the professor lives to bully the student another day” 

The bully is normally much more valuable to the University than the victim. 

In UK Universities, allegations are usually investigated by Human Resources departments. They are not even at arm’s length from senior management. They are readily susceptible to the “subliminal steer”.  

It may not even be subliminal. 

The default of all organisations is to protect themselves. If they are allowed to investigate wrongdoing themselves, they will seek to mitigate any negative outcome by casting the organisation in the most favourable light possible.  

It is no surprise that the Countess of Chester Hospital and the British Museum — two scandal-hit institutions in the news this week — carried out investigations that exonerated themselves. 

Bullying or harassment is thus much better dealt with by an independent body with real power — a University Ombudsman — who can genuinely assess any wrongdoing, even by senior people (they are usually the bullies).  

This entry was posted on August 30, 2023 at 11:00 am and is filed under Harassment Bullying etc with tags Athene Donald, Bullying, Cambridge University, Neil Wyn Evans, Wyn Evans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.