Autonomy row hits LSE as sponsor axes research
Phil Baty, Times Higher Education Supplement, 12 January 2001
A row over the commercialisation of university research and academic freedom
has erupted at the London School of Economics following the decision of a
major research sponsor to prematurely pull the plug on a £250,000 contract.
Travel industry lobby group the World Travel and Tourism Council withdrew
funding from the LSE in April last year, mid-way through a three-year
contract with the school. The WTTC claimed that the LSE's work was of poor
quality. Researcher Thanos Mergoupis and his research assistant lost their
jobs as a result of the decision. Mr Mergoupis claims that the pulling of
the money was not just breach of contract, but breach of his and the LSE's
academic freedom. Mr Mergoupis has a number of grievances against the LSE
for failing to enforce its contract with the WTTC and stand up for the
research done in its name. He claims the LSE's failure to act decisively
denied him the protection he is entitled to under the 1988 Education Act.
The law allows academics to put forward unpopular and controversial opinions
without putting their jobs in jeopardy.
The WTTC commissioned research from the LSE's Centre for the Philosophy of
Natural and Social Science to examine the economic and social impact of
tourism. A contract was signed to release the £250,000 over three years and
work began in 1998. In September 1999, WTTC vice-president Rick Miller told
the LSE's team that one of its research papers was "completely inadequate in
its review of... the WTTC's research".
But the WTTC said that suggestions that it withdrew the funds because the
LSE was not coming up with the findings it was looking for are "absolutely
spurious". WTTC vice-president for strategy and development, Graham Watson,
told The THES that it was not the findings that the WTTC objected to - it
had already made some methodological changes on the advice of the LSE's
papers - "it was more the nature of the output and some of the methodology
that wasn't quite hitting the spot". The WTTC withdrew funding in April
2000.
Last May, formal legal advice to the university confirmed that the LSE had
had good grounds to seek damages to compensate for the premature loss of
funding. However, the LSE's failure to dispute the WTTC's decision at the
time, it was confirmed, meant that any potential action was almost
inevitably doomed.
The Campaign for Academic Freedom and Academic Standards is supporting Mr
Mergoupis. It said in a letter to LSE director Anthony Giddens that the
independence of research is protected in the constitution of every British
university by the principle of academic freedom. An LSE spokesperson said:
"Mr Mergoupis has taken up this matter under the school's internal grievance
procedure and it is currently being investigated. "It would be unfair to
comment until this process has been concluded."
____________________________________________
Dr. Jonathan M. Feldman
Work and Culture Program
National Institute for Working Life
Laxholmen, SE-602 21 Norrköping, Sweden
Mailing address:
Room K4-4016
Arbertslivsinstitutet, Solna Office
c/o 11279 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: Office 46 (0) 8 730 9213, if no answer try: 46 (0) 11 21 89 35
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