The week in higher education – 3 August 2023

Thanks to persistent inflation and the peculiarities of Trussonomics, the Universities Superannuation Scheme has had to navigate some rough waters in recent years. But with great risk comes great reward, not least for the USS’ chief executive, Bill Galvin, who secured for himself a bonus of £262,000 for 2022-23. That means Mr Galvin, who is serving his final watch after a decade at the helm, can count on a total pay packet of £790,000 to see him through rising living costs. Back on dry land, the Court of Appeal recently ruled that Captain Galvin and the senior leadership did not breach their duties as the scheme’s running costs ballooned from £40 million to £160 million a year between 2010 and 2020. As cash-strapped academics continue to mutiny over pay and working conditions, many will be glad their USS subs could soon reduce. But vice-chancellors may struggle to make anti-inflationary arguments for keeping pay low, given Mr Galvin’s latest good fortune. 

Speaking of the marking boycott, it’s fair to say that relations between staff and some chancelleries have deteriorated beyond even the animosity levelled at the USS leadership. Upping the ante on the side of the chancelleries is Keith Brown, vice-president of the University of Manchester, who invoked the assassination of Martin Luther King to criticise those who have refused to pick up their grading pens. “While those participating in the marking boycott are conducting legitimate industrial action, this action is hurting our students. Robert Kennedy’s phrase about being too willing to excuse those people who ‘build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others’ comes to mind,” the outgoing dean of humanities wrote to staff. Opinions vary on whether unattractive working conditions or gradeless degrees will do more damage to UK higher education in the long term, but most would agree there are mercifully few parallels between the current showdown and the bloody murder of a civil rights leader.

London can be a stressful city, so it’s unsurprising that it boasts hundreds of classes teaching tai chi, a Chinese martial art so soft you can spread it on toast. A new and selective offering was recently added to that list by the Race Equality Network at King’s College London, a group of postgraduate and staff volunteers who organise events “open to everyone at King’s”. Deviating from that remit somewhat, the classes, which were billed as a remedy to racism and systemic oppression, were limited only to staff “who identify as black/people of colour/global majority”. Barring Caucasians upset a few colleagues, but it particularly raised tensions at The Daily Telegraph, which reported that the “race row” had “infuriated” staff. Seeking clarity, it turned to Sir John Hayes, head of the Common Sense Group of 60 backbench Tory MPs, who insisted the relaxation sessions must be “stopped at all costs”. Let’s just all take a deep breath, shall we?

Higher education is often found wringing its hands over online toxicity. One way to dodge the trolls is to steer clear of sites like Economics Job Market Rumors, a mostly academic jobs board that, alongside gigs, hosts “much content that is abusive, defamatory, racist, misogynistic or otherwise ‘toxic’”, a recent research paper notes. But who could be spewing such bile? If you guessed users logging in from “literally all the leading universities in the United States”, you’d be quite right, according to the IP-tracking probe by researcher Florian Ederer and colleagues, reported by Inside Higher Ed. Posters have understandably become a little shifty, with one recent top thread titled, “How is what Ederer did not illegal?” Perhaps if leading economists can stop attacking one another they might bring civilised, rational debate to other corners of the web.

When Joy Alonzo, an expert in opioid abuse and lecturer at Texas A&M University, allegedly criticised the state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, she could hardly have imagined she would end up facing political discipline. But did she consider she was teaching the daughter of Dawn Buckingham, the state land commissioner and a friend of John Sharp, a former state comptroller, who now serves as Texas A&M chancellor? Within hours Mr Sharp wrote to Mr Patrick promising that Dr Alonzo “has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week,” The Texas Tribune reported. The university seems to have grown a backbone, and has kept her on, but respect for academic liberty still seems to shine a little dimmer in the lone star state.