Palatinate Officially the UK and Ireland’s Best Student Publication, 2021
Thursday 10th June 2021 | No. 840
Profile exclusively interview Durham’s retiring Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart Corbridge
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Fashion explore rainbow capitalism and the commodification of Pride
Students “helpless” in negotiating “overly complex” University complaints procedure Katie Tobin and Toby DoneganCross Investigations Editor and Editor-in-Chief Students who have complained about sexual assault and domestic abuse at Durham University have reported to Palatinate feeling “helpless” in trying to negotiate the University’s complaints procedure. They have been left “disappointed” with the outcome and with the sense that they
VC first to increase post-Covid salary
“shouldn’t bother trying to report anything else because... it’s not worth bringing back all that trauma for.” The complaints procedure itself entails the completion of an online form, in which students are asked to describe their experiences of assault and/or abuse. Complainants are also asked what action they would like the University to take against the individual they are complaining about. Students suggested that the
question about the punishment for the individual they were complaining about made them lose confidence in the system. One commented “all I wanted was a sense of fairness and justice. I had assumed that the University would have a procedure for giving the appropriate punishment.” One student also described how their request for action against the accused individual was not acted upon, and as a result, they felt a sense of injustice and lack of agency in the complaints process. Another told Palatinate that this
question had taken them a week to answer. Having submitted the complaint form, students described the ensuing investigation process as “traumatic.” According to complainants, one of the main issues related to the extensive time frame taken to complete disciplinary procedures. One student reported that, having first submitted their complaint in September 2020, it was not investigated until January, and
not resolved until March, 2021. As a result, this left them “in limbo” for over six months. Once investigations begin, cases are investigated by specialists from the University. A number of students spoke positively of their investigators, and all agreed that it was good that two were assigned rather than one. However, others described how they felt “judged” by their investigators on the basis of how much they may have drunk or Continued on page 7
Martha McHardy News Editor Durham University ViceChancellor, Professor Stuart Corbridge, was the first ViceChancellor in the UK to have their salary bumped up to its pre-Covid-19 level, according to information obtained in a Freedom of Information request by The Times. Professor Corbridge took a 10% pay cut during the early stages of the pandemic. In July 2020, the Vice-Chancellor’s salary was boosted from £245,700 back to its pre-pandemic amount of £273,000. Data obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Palatinate showed that at this time, 884 staff at Durham University were on furlough. Durham University was followed by Newcastle University and the Royal College of Art, where the Vice-Chancellors’ salaries were returned to normal in August 2020. The University of Cambridge is the most recent university to have Continued on page 6
▲ In recent weeks, students and locals alike have been enjoying the glorious sunshine in which Durham has been bathed (James Tillotson)
£1m cash payments “an open invitation to money launderers” Luke Payne Investigations Editor Durham University accepted over a million pounds in cash for tuition and accommodation fees over the past 10 years. The cash payments expose the University to the risk of being
used as part of money laundering schemes. Following an investigation by The Times, Palatinate made Freedom of Information requests about the amount of cash payments made by students to Durham University over the past decade. During that period, Durham
accepted £805,164 in cash payments for tuition fees and £216,831 for accommodation fees. In February, The Times described the acceptance of payment using banknotes from overseas students as “an open invitation to money launderers.”
In an editorial, The Times said that “unlike accountancy and financial firms, universities are not automatically subject to money laundering regulations requiring enhanced due diligence”. A breakdown of the data by Continued on page 4