A critique of Cardiff University's plans.
Redacted, revised and abridged.
Today I am publishing a critique of the Our Academic Future plans published by the Cardiff University Executive Board (UEB) at the end of January. The critique has already been covered by Wales Online this morning.
It has been written with insights gleaned from colleagues across the university over the last few weeks.
It is not complete, and nor could it be. Almost eight weeks into the consultation promised documentation has still not been circulated by the University, such as the ‘critical friend’ report into the Business School which the Academic Future document promised would be made available to staff, unions and other stakeholders. I keep being told that it will be shared with me soon. Whether I get to see it or not isn’t the point. The University has a duty to deliver to staff, their unions and stakehoders documentation that was promised to them at the outset of the consultation. That it still isn’t ready shows how unprepared the University was for its own consultation.
The document I am making available today is a version of a paper I have submitted on behalf of colleagues to the consultation, sent in advance of the first consultation deadline of 14 March. I have had to submit it and make it available under my own name because of the climate of fear that really does exist on campus. Since my blog and BBC interview on 9 March, I have been overwhelmed by the messages of goodwill and support from colleagues across the University. Diolch o galon. Thank you again to all of you.
At the same time, every day on campus I am made conscious of the fears that people have. This is not about the mood in individual Schools. Heads of Schools where redundancy or worse is threatened remain immensely supportive of their colleagues and each other and it is still possible to have frank and open conversations about our future. Behind the scenes, gallows humour takes over. I have also lost count of the number of colleagues joking with me that they are happy to hold my coat in this fight. People suspect that their social media accounts are being monitored - nothing would be surprising about that, frankly - and individuals are deeply worried about their own position. But, as usual in a campaign, new friendships are being forged and old rivalries and antagonisms forgotten and forgiven.
Meanwhile not a day passes without someone saying ‘you couldn’t make this up.’
As for the collective University leadership, the UEB appears before us in stage-managed webinars where questions are read out by members of the internal communications team (no blame attaches to them, it’s their job) and one by one UEB members queue up to offer their prepared answers. The UEB seeks to avoid scrutiny both internally and externally. There is no longer any pretence at social partnership principles in action. I will repeat my past call about the need for civility but frankly that’s not the ‘vibe’ on campus. People are scared to speak out and the UCU union has been threatened under the Dignity at Work policy, despite the clear statement in the University’s statutes that
academic staff have freedom within the law to question and test received wisdom, and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions, without placing themselves in jeopardy of losing their jobs or privileges.
With one crass letter to the UCU union, rightly denounced by Dr Hefin David MS, the UEB managed to demonstrate that its Dignity at Work policy was in breach of the University’s own Statutes, human rights law and higher education law. So I suppose the UEB has achieved something since I last wrote. There is no evidence however that they are sentient of the overall damage they have done and how longlasting it will be, or that they have any proposals to restore morale, trust and goodwill. Most colleagues I know are deeply saddened about what this means for the future of the University.
Last week it was confirmed that 1400 members of academic staff, myself and my Business School colleagues included, remain at risk of redundancy. We have not been given any intelligible criteria as to why specific Schools were taken out of scope. This week individual consultations commence with members of the University’s hard-pressed and over-worked HR teams. Against this backdrop, they and the rest of our professional services staff are still waiting to hear what is likely to happen to them. But at least they know that the ‘Newspeak’ horrors of ‘functional alignment’ and ‘professional rehoming’ have been dropped. It’s ‘professional alignment’ now.
As you can imagine, this is not an atmosphere that is conducive to research and innovation. But then the current proposals imply a centralised factory model of higher education at Cardiff University, not a research-led or teaching-led model. The UEB’s proposals will damage the University’s future prospects, its ability to recruit or retain academic staff, its research performance, and the quality of teaching for students. It’s frankly time that University Council members thought hard about what they have allowed UEB to unleash. All of this is unnecessary and was avoidable.
You can read the critique below. An alternative will follow next week, and proposals for higher education funding reform will be published later.
Yesterday I was delighted to receive a message of support from Cardiff graduate and Honorary Fellow Dafydd Iwan, which will be released by the UCU union shortly. We were singing Dafydd’s iconic anthem Yma o Hyd in the Cardiff City stadium at the Wales v. Kazakhstan game on Saturday night, and these words are relevant to our current struggle:
er gwaetha pawb a phopeth, ry'n ni yma o hyd.
Here is our critique:
Diolch yn fawr! Really grateful to see this shared.
Excellent work Leighton et al. Thanks for everything that you are doing to challenge the Academic Futures proposal.