In a spirit of hang-me-for-a-sheep fatalism: fall on this, ya pack
of wild puppyetceteras!
Candice
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Monday, February 5, 2001
Consultants Call U. of Cambridge's Culture 'Macho' and
'Insular'
By DAVID WALKER
The University of Cambridge has a "macho culture" and is
"insular and secretive," according to consultants engaged by
Alec Broers, the British university's vice chancellor, who
immediately pledged to reform hiring and management practices.
Schneider Ross, a company specializing in equal-opportunity
audits, was commissioned last year to survey faculty attitudes
at Cambridge. It found heavy disapproval of management. A
quarter of the respondents said they had experienced bullying.
Some 75 percent of respondents who are members of ethnic
minorities and 66 percent of women said they had felt
undervalued or excluded at some point. Only 6 percent of
Cambridge's full professors are female.
But 60 percent of respondents said they considered the
university a good employer. Mr. Broers said in a statement
that the findings revealed an institution that "had some way
to go, but in which there is already a consciousness of the
need to work towards ways of developing the potential of a
diverse population of staff."
The consultants said there was an inbred culture at the
ancient university, where some 70 percent of professors had
received a degree from Cambridge. A third of the academics
with Cambridge degrees had no experience of other
universities, and 39 percent had been at Cambridge for at
least two decades.
Many of the long-serving faculty members were men, and males
recorded the highest levels of satisfaction with the
university.
Mr. Broers said that many of Cambridge's senior managers
lacked "the necessary skills," but he promised to establish a
more friendly and supportive environment and said there would
be a follow up survey in 2003.
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Copyright 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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