{"id":272,"date":"2017-12-07T15:39:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T15:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=272"},"modified":"2018-01-05T15:47:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T15:47:45","slug":"barbered-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/barbered-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"BARBERED COMMENTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should there be a future inquiry into vice-chancellors’ pay (see above) it is not likely to come from HEFCE in its current form. The new Office for Students, the regulatory body which will subsume the responsibilities of HEFCE and the Office for Fair Access from April 2018, will be in the driving seat. Sir Michael Barber, who is to be the inaugural chair of the body, has publicly pledged to ‘deal with’ vice-chancellorial salaries that are out of kilter with the performance of their respective universities, as well as how they stack up with the pay of other staff. But readers who are bouncing with glee at the hardline approach from what appears to be a straight talking fixer ought not to get too excited. <\/span><\/p>\n

For those who don’t know him, Sir Michael Barber is famous for being the inaugural head of the Prime Minister’s ‘Delivery Unit’ during the second term of Tony Blair’s government. One of Blair’s most notorious legacies was the amping up to 11 of the market, metric, and money-driven means of running public services that exist to this day, and Sir Michael Barber was one of its key architects. After working for Blair, he joined global management consultants McKinsey and became chief architect of ‘Deliverology’, a pseudoscience with manipulated \/ gamed targets and managerialism at its core. Readers who think we’re being harsh on Sir Michael are invited to read his own account, from 2011, here: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/y9ojh87j<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, it isn’t difficult to predict that what is actually meant by ‘out of kilter’ can be many different things to many different people. In the same statement in which Sir Michael laid out his Tough Stance, he declared that ‘the best form of regulation is self-regulation’, adding that he didn’t intend to ‘interfere directly with university autonomy.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, we’re sure he’s got everybody quaking in their boots. Although the idea of our VC having to justify his remuneration to someone whose past antics inspired The Thick of It (Sir Michael is said to be the main inspiration for Julius Nicholson, ‘Blue Skies’ adviser to the Prime Minister) does have a certain appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should there be a future inquiry into vice-chancellors’ pay (see above) it is not likely to come from HEFCE in its current form. The new Office for Students, the regulatory body which will subsume the responsibilities of HEFCE and the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[178,176],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-issue-170","tag-vc-pay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-4o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":274,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/gravy-train-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":0},"title":"GRAVY TRAIN BLUES","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 7 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The generous salaries paid to vice-chancellors have been very much in the news lately. Firstly at Bath, then Southampton, and now in Birmingham, staff, students and outside bodies have challenged what they see as the bloated pay packets of their VCs. Contrasts have been drawn with real-terms reductions in pay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":732,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/university-court\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":1},"title":"UNIVERSITY COURT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"2018 saw the demise of the University Court, one of Lancaster's oldest and most diverse decision-making bodies. The University Court was an annual gathering bringing together a whole array of stakeholders. It made recommendations to the Senate and the Council of the university, was responsible for appointing the Pro-Chancellor, had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "history"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/18\/and-another-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":2},"title":"AND ANOTHER THING","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"January 18 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As it turns out, the membership of our Remuneration Committee was changed by a decision of last September\u2019s Council meeting. So it happened just weeks before the HEFCE report on Bath VC\u2019s pay was made public. Phew, a lucky escape for us! It\u2019s almost as if our Council had advance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1090,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/11\/01\/jute-jam-and-rent-disputes\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":3},"title":"JUTE, JAM AND RENT DISPUTES","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Our former Deputy Vice-Chancellor's tenure as Principal of Dundee University continues to go from strength to strength. The following appeared in The Herald on 30 October 2019: https:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/news\/18004372.professor-andrew-atherton-removed-office\/ According to a Dundee spokesperson, 'Professor Atherton, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, was suspended from office on September 13, pending an investigation which remains\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1183,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/02\/19\/penguins-a-fire-and-a-nasty-case-of-hypothermia\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":4},"title":"PENGUINS, A FIRE AND A NASTY CASE OF HYPOTHERMIA","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed article As a diligent and (short of annual leave) member of University staff I dutifully made the first-day-after-Christmas pilgrimage to our office in University House on 2nd January. Following the many complaints over previous years I arrived confident that the building would be toasty-warm. How wrong I was. Entering\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/power-grabs-by-the-top-table\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":5},"title":"POWER GRABS BY THE TOP TABLE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Along with completely obliterating the University Court, the top table has further gutted the responsibilities and the powers of the Senate, and given them to the University Council. The Senate consists of all department heads, all faculty deans, all college principals, four faculty lecturers, four faculty associate deans, two SU\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "history"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}