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No. 867 Wednesday 19th June 2019 varsity.co.uk
Theatre Cambridge’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1947
‘Arrogant and uncollegial’: academics on Trinity’s USS withdrawal Chloe Bayliss Deputy News Editor “If Trinity will not support the wider academic community, the academic community has a duty to return the compliment”, said University Councillor Dr Jason Scott-Warren, speaking of the College’s recent decision to exit the USS. “What Trinity has done is to turn its back on cooperativity in favour of self-interest,” remarked Professor Richard Farndale. Earlier this term, Trinity College made the landmark decision to exit the national pensions scheme for higher education employees, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a decision dubbed “Trexit”. Trinity academics who were previously part of this scheme will “become members of new pensions arrangements administered by the College, providing the same benefits as [the USS]”. This decision has the potential to destabilise the entire pensions scheme, impacting staff nationwide. A senior USS official has told employers that the pensions scheme will be placed on “negative
Possible ‘failures of disclosure’ made by Noah Carl, report finds Rosie Bradbury News Correspondent
watch” following Trinity’s withdrawal. If, following Trinity’s exit, a second sizable employer chooses to exit the scheme, official advisors say that the scheme’s overall rating of financial stability would be downgraded from ‘strong’ to ‘tending to strong’. At the time of writing, over 450 Cambridge academics have pledged to withdraw all labour from Trinity College in protest of their decision, including supervisions for Trinity students. Varsity reached out to some of these academics to hear their views on Trinity’s actions, and on the potential impact of their boycott. Trinity’s decision to leave the USS was motivated by the risk of less financially robust higher education institutions in the scheme collapsing, which could leave wealthier institutions, such as Trinity, taking up the shortfall. Several academics expressed frustration at this motivation, describing the small risk associated with the USS in a range of creative manners. Dr Waseem Yaqoob, Cambridge UCU Branch Secretary, described the likelihood of such a situation Full story page 2-3 ▶
The full report of one of St. Edmund’s investigations into the appointment of controversial research fellow Dr Noah Carl has revealed new details around his appointment process, including that a senior Eddie’s fellow has suggested there were “potential failures of disclosure” of Carl’s academic papers and of his participation in the London Conference on Intelligence — a secret eugenics conference held in past years at UCL. The review, led by retired Lord Justice of Appeal Sir Patrick Elias, has argued that despite Carl’s non-disclosure, there was “no material failure on [his] part”, as there is no legal duty for job applicants “to disclose information which might undermine his application”. However, the senior fellow has suggested that Carl’s omission of these details was in an attempt to “downplay their existence”. Furthermore the report, submitted to the college’s governing body and obtained by Varsity through a Freedom of Information Act request, has recommended that they adopt a policy of “making full disclosure an express ▲ Academics have spoken out against Trinity’s decision to leave the national higher education pensions scheme: the USS (CHRISTOPHER HILTON/GEOGRAPH)
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