Paul Layzell – The Orbital

Continued Suspension of Royal Holloway UCU Equality Officer, Jeff Franks

18Sep

By Natasha LamNo Comments

News

Continued Suspension of Royal Holloway UCU Equality Officer, Jeff Franks

Jeff Franks, a Professor in the Economics Department here at RHUL, has been suspended since April 11 2018 and continues to be restricted from contacting students or coming onto campus. He has been suspended on the grounds of leaking confidential and sensitive information, violating the recently implemented GDPR and privacy practices, as well as violating the College Grievance Policy. According to a document Orbital Magazine has access to, the college’s suspension of Franks “is deemed appropriate because… continued presence at work may inhibit the investigation in connection with the allegations” against him. Franks is the Equality Officer for the Royal Holloway branch of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) and was supportive of the pensions strikes that occurred earlier this year....

Principal Layzell Concedes to #RHOccupy’s Demands

20Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

News

Principal Layzell Concedes to #RHOccupy’s Demands

Students known as #RHOccupy have now vacated the Principal’s Corridor after 5 days in position there. They made the decision to leave at 12pm today, March 20, after Chief Operating Officer (COO) David Ashton approached them with a copy of Principal Paul Layzell’s staff newsletter as well his official letter to to Alastair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK (UUK), and Sally Hunt, chair of the University and College Union. The letter to UUK and UCU called for a return to a Defined Benefit Scheme as well as supporting an indepedent evaluation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). These were two of #RHOccupy’s demands, along with an apology for the way staff were treated in regards to strikes and, in particular, pay deductions with action short of a strike (ASOS). All thr...

19Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

News

Students Occupy Principal’s Corridor

Students occupied the Principal’s Corridor, a section of Founder’s Building, on Friday March 16 just after 12pm. They have taken up position in the corridor, just outside Principal Paul Layzell’s office and are planning to occupy until their demands are met. Their demands include: A full statement to be delivered by Paul Layzell in support of the UCU strike aims which include a defined benefit scheme and an indepedent evaluation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Paul Layzell to come out and support members of staff and students and apologise for the hard-line approach taken so far. Paul Layzell to publically back any future developments that may arise in relation to preserving the current scheme. Paul Layzell to read and take into account the letter written ...

Over 400 Alumni Sign Open Letter to Paul Layzell

12Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

News

Over 400 Alumni Sign Open Letter to Paul Layzell

Over 400 alumni of Royal Holloway have signed an open letter to Principal Layzell addressing the college’s response to UCU strikes as well as Layzell’s previous comments concerning the gender pay gap, which Orbital reported in January. This comes directly after Layzell’s response, both towards staff and students, in the face of strikes has come under fire. The letter was written by alumni Joe Rayment, Jamie Green and Jen Mills. It has since been signed by over 400 graduates, including four former members of the university’s Governing Council. Rayment, a current Labour councillor in Bath, said that he was “extremely disturbed by what has happened here in recent months” and he hopes “that our voices are heard and that Professor Layzell will respond to us and explain exactly how he w...

College Accused of Planting Questions for Principal’s Staff Open Meeting to “Drown Out Questions From UCU Members”

9Mar

By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments

News

College Accused of Planting Questions for Principal’s Staff Open Meeting to “Drown Out Questions From UCU Members”

In an email sent to Royal Holloway line managers on Wednesday 7 March, which Orbital Magazine has seen, the College Communications team have asked for line managers to select "two trusted people" to ask a question at the Principal's next Staff Open Meeting on 12 March. The email stated: Dear [Line Manager], The next staff open meeting is on Monday afternoon at 4pm and earlier this week we changed the topic to address the pensions and the wider higher education landscape. We know we are going to receive a lot of questions from UCU representatives which Paul and the senior team will answer. As well as addressing questions about pensions we’d also like to make sure that other areas that staff have questions on are addressed. To do this we’d like to have some people in the audience prime...

7Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

Surface Level Suffragettes?

The history of the suffrage movement is obviously very important here at Royal Holloway. So, itt makes sense for the college to find ways of celebrating this history during the centenary anniversary of Women’s Suffrage, right? Wrong. With so many lingering issues surrounding women on this campus, I'm not sure Royal Holloway should be capitalising on the suffrage movement without addressing these important issues. Since the recent unveiling of the Davison Building, named after suffragette Emily Wilding Davison as she is an alumna of this ‘feminist institution’, Royal Holloway has also placed a open exhibition with archived memorabilia in the Davison exhibition space as well as enlisting students to dress in Suffragette outfits and walk around campus on February 6, which was the day that ...

Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal

23Jan

By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments

News

Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal

Royal Holloway Principal, Professor Layzell has claimed the university has a “transparent and fair pay system” despite having the seventh worst gender pay gap in the country at professorial level. Speaking at his last Staff Open Meeting in November, he claimed the problem was instead rooted in the fact there are not enough women going for promotion. In a recording of the meeting obtained by Orbital Magazine, the Principal claimed that “there are certain protected groups where there is a natural tendency to not have a go and put themselves in for promotion - sometimes that’s gender, sometimes it’s the BAME group”. The Principal is facing backlash from his “natural tendency” comments, with one member of staff in the Geography Department telling Orbital that it was “an example of ev...

10Nov

By Shannon GrayNo Comments

News

Top Of The Charts

Royal Holloway has risen six places in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide of 2018, making it the fourth highest performing university in London, and 28th in the country. The principal, Professor Paul Layzell, states: “The rise in such a highly regarded guide, is a result of our university’s commitment to its student community. We are dedicated to inspiring our students to succeed through our high-quality teaching and world-class research.” The Times and Sunday Times University Guide uses a variety of factors to decide on a university’s position, such as employment prospects, degree results achieved, and performance in the National Student Survey (NSS). In the 2017 National Student Survey, Royal Holloway retained its title of the highest student satisfaction in London, desp...

Emily Wilding Davison Building Officially Declared Open

24Oct

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Features

Emily Wilding Davison Building Officially Declared Open

On Wednesday 18 October, the Emily Wilding Davison was officially opened by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Chancellor of the University of London, Princess Anne. The building was closed to students between 9am and 4:30pm on that day to allow for the Princess’ tour and speech to be given. The building was worked on for nearly two years, with almost 3000 people working on the construction of the building to get it to what it is today. The library contains more than 400,000 books and over 1000 study spaces for student use. It offers other services, such as the Union Shop, the Santander Bank, the Student Services Centre, the Careers & Employability Centre and the Exhibition Space for interests in art and culture. The opening was a remarkable event, with many students head...

University heads’ pay hits average of £272k, whilst student fees reach record highs

2Mar

By No Comments

News

University heads’ pay hits average of £272k, whilst student fees reach record highs

A study by the University and College Union suggested vice-chancellors at UK universities received average salary packages of £272,000 last year, up some £12,000 from 2014. Vice-chancellors' pay has come under scrutiny in recent years, with ministers in 2014 raising concerns about the “substantial upward drift” of salaries. The UCU study based on Freedom of Information requests calculated university bosses received almost seven times more than the average wages of staff, with bosses receiving “inflation-busting” rises. Royal Holloway’s principal Paul Layzell received a 3% (£8k) pay increase in 2014, bringing his total salary up to £265k, according to Royal Holloway’s financial report. The research also suggests universities spent thousands more on hotels, flights and other expe...