D2.3. Case Study - Chancellor

You are a chancellor of a university. A formal complaint has been made to you by Dr. Y, a lecturer in the School of Music.

Dr. Y joined the university six years ago, just after being awarded his PhD, to carry out teaching and research duties. Initially employed on a three-year temporary contract, he performed well in the role and was retained on a second three-year contract. That second contract is about to end and Dr Y has recently been informed that his employment will not be renewed. The decision was made by a small panel of senior staff from the School of Music. Dr Y claims that the panel chair, Professor B, is biased against him and that the panel’s decision must be overturned.

Professor B and Dr Y carried out a small joint research project three years ago. The project, which was externally funded, has been completed and a paper was published in a peer-reviewed journal last year. Professor B and Dr Y are listed as the joint authors of the paper but Dr Y tells you that he had to fight for this.

He claims that when Professor B submitted the draft paper for publication, he removed Dr Y as an author and added a friend as the other author instead. Dr Y says he complained to his Head of School, who looked into the matter informally. According to Dr Y, Professor B was ordered to write a letter of apology to him. In this letter, the Professor admitted to the improper changes to the paper’s authorship and said that he would not act in such a manner again.

Dr Y says it is clear that his contract ‘has not been renewed because Professor B is out to get me’ and demands that you take action. He also says that the university did not act properly when it looked into the authorship complaint; he has always felt that Professor B’s actions deserved a more serious penalty than simply being told to write a letter.

Questions:

• How would you respond to Dr Y?

• Could anything have been done to prevent this situation from occurring in the first place?

• Are there any wider issues to consider?

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