ACADEMICS have attacked the development of a new code of practice for Scottish universities.
UCU Scotland, which represents lecturers, said the way the code was being drawn up ignored the views of staff and students.
The union is also concerned key recommendations of an earlier review – such as the election of chairs of universities’ ruling Courts – could be overturned.
Last year, a review of university governance recommended a new code of conduct to regulate the way institutions are run after warnings over the dictatorial style of principals and senior managers.
Michael Russell, the Education Secretary, entrusted the development of the code to the Committee of Scottish Chairs, which represents chairs of university courts.
Now, UCU Scotland argues they are ignoring a direction from Mr Russell to include representatives of staff and students on their steering group.
Gordon Watson, president of UCU Scotland, said: “In June, the Cabinet Secretary asked the chairs of court to lead a group, including staff and students, to develop a code of practice to take forward the report’s recommendations and we agreed. However, the chairs of court took over four months to develop a remit and form a steering group and, in blatant disregard of the Scottish Parliament, did not consult with staff or students.”
Mr Watson said the group proposed to “waste time, money and resources” re-gathering evidence that had already been considered by the earlier review.
He added: “Staff and student involvement in this process is vital if we are to make any meaningful changes to university governance to increase democracy and transparency.”
Dr Peter West, a former chair of court and a consultant in the development of the code, dismissed the concerns, saying: “We have already met with a number of trade unions including the UCU, and we will visit all universities in Scotland including separate meetings with staff and students.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article