Briefing on the state of affairs in the UK academy

When a country needs a Council for the Defence of its Universities, something has gone wrong.”What is happening in your university? Help us record the rot”, CDBU asks. Various responses are being published on the creeping Stalinisation (sic) by the cadre of managers who perceive themselves as a new kind of officer class that is strangling the proper function of UK universities.

Rick Trainor receives an annual remuneration of £321,000. He should be asked to return every single pound he has received from this institution for the damage he is inflicting upon Kings College and its students. Voltaire once wrote “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize”. Martin Parker of the University of Leicester recently found out what he meant. Thomas Docherty, Sarah Sayce, John Allen are also learning.

Caín en los estados unidos – David Alfaro Siquieros.
Academic who did not bow his head in restructured department? pic.twitter.com/SBWWKtxAyp

— Fanis Missirlis (@fanismissir) May 25, 2014

“Dr Soh [unfairly dismissed by Imperial College] was busy moving her laboratory operation from North America to the UK and trying to defend herself against dismissal and career loss after delivering only 20 lectures” – her statement was removed from the Times Higher Education commentary underneath the report of her case. The “culture of harassment” at Imperial College is apparently shameful but excusable. As is the “culture of fear” at Durham University.

Sackings at the University of Dundee. Threats of sackings at the University of Sheffield. Sackings at the University of Central Lancashire. Should Richard Horton’s warning to Queen Mary University of London applicants become a warning to all applicants to any UK University?

@DavidPriceUCL How do "Premier Inn" cadres mix with the traditional powers? Do they compete for the most high-profile academic sackings? Sad

— Fanis Missirlis (@fanismissir) June 5, 2014

Individual resistence should be met with collective actions, as admirably shown by our colleagues at Lambeth College these days. Is there any UK-based academic or citizen who is not ashamed of what is going on in the country’s once admired Universities? And those students put in a huge debt by the bankers? Are they going to keep falling to the trap from here to posterity?

-the only way to restore budgets to previous levels is to ensure we hit our recruitment targets but also that our progression rates are high

— Fanis Missirlis (@fanismissir) June 3, 2014