Cambridge University Reporter


Report of Discussion

Tuesday, 30 May 2006. A Discussion was held in the Council Room. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Mr Duncan Robinson was presiding, with the Senior Proctor, the Junior Proctor, a Pro-Proctor, the Registrary, and two other persons present. The following Report was discussed:

Report of the General Board, dated 10 May 2006, on Senior Academic Promotions (p. 585).

Mr D. J. GOODE (read by Mrs S. BOWRING)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I speak today as Vice-President of the Cambridge Association of University Teachers (AUT), for the very last time as a new union, the University and College Union, comes into being the day after tomorrow, and Cambridge AUT will be no longer.

First, I should like to pass on the AUT's congratulations to all who have received a promotion in this year's Senior Academic Promotions exercise. Especial congratulations are due to Dr Hodge, who was wrongfully denied his promotion in last year's exercise, and who has won his appeal against that decision.

And, mindful of Dr Hodge, I should also like to pass on commiserations to all who were unsuccessful. Members of AUT passed over for promotion this time who feel aggrieved by this lack of recognition may, of course, approach us for assistance with any appeal they may be contemplating.

But, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, though some members of the University are rejoicing and others licking their wounds, this exercise, by its very nature, highlights a scandalous injustice, which is that there is no promotions exercise for academic-related or contract research staff. The Staff Guide section on promotion says: 'Academic related staff may be considered for promotion if their contribution and responsibilities merit appointment to a higher graded office or post' and 'Contract research staff do not automatically progress from one grade to the next; promotion requires a positive recommendation from your institution'.1 What this amounts to in reality is that the career progression of thousands of members of the University is in the gift of their Chair of Faculty, Head of Department, or Head of Institution. There is no formal procedure. There is no policy.

For academic staff, the career progression path is clear: Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor. For academic-related and contract research staff, the career progression path is equally clear: there isn't one. I suppose, for administrative staff, there is a sort of path whereby they might end up as the University's most senior administrative officer, the Registrary. But, as the University went to great lengths to trumpet recently in press releases and interviews,2 Dr Mead, the incumbent Registrary, is only the twenty-fifth post-holder since 1506, and I don't suppose many of his 750 or more staff are holding out too much hope of being the twenty-sixth.

But what about Librarians, or Faculty Administrative Officers, or Computer Officers, or contract researchers? What hope for them? Frankly, not much. They are, on the whole, in what are often known as dead-end jobs. Whether male or female, black or white, straight or gay, or somewhere in between any of the above, there is a glass ceiling for everyone in the academic-related and contract research grades. And in a twenty-first century research-led University, this simply isn't good enough.

We need to have clearly defined career progression paths for all academic-related and contract research staff as a priority. We need to have a formal promotions procedure for all academic-related and contract research staff as a priority.

1 http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/personnel/staff/guide/terms/promotion.html

2 http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2006042401