Britain’s highest-paid university chief and another senior executive created a culture of favouritism and exclusion at Imperial College, according to damning details of a report released after she had attempted to suppress its publication.
Imperial’s president, Alice Gast, last year apologised after an independent report found that she and the college’s chief financial officer had bullied members of staff. However, they have resisted calls by student and academic representatives to resign, while she attempted to block the report’s release under freedom of information.
But redacted details were published on Thursday after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) rejected Gast’s arguments against the release and disagreed with her attempts to downplay the findings against her as “relatively minor”.
They include accounts of Gast and Muir Sanderson’s behaviour and its impact on victims who were bullied in 2019 and 2020. Jane McNeill QC, who carried out the investigation, said some witnesses had expressed a fear of retaliation.
McNeill found that Gast and Sanderson had “created or contributed to a culture which involves and tolerates favouritism, exclusion, the making of disparaging comments about others and at times a lack of respect for others”.
Referring to Gast and Sanderson by their initials, the report goes on to state: “In relation to both AG and MS, several witnesses described a culture of favouritism: you are ‘in or out’; ‘the favourite child’; ‘a hero or zero’; or in the ‘in gang or out gang’. One witness said that there were a lot of employees at any one time ‘in the rubbish pot’.”
McNeill’s report found that Gast had bullied a colleague, which she has apologised for, but that her treatment of some others did not amount to bullying. Sanderson has apologised for bullying two colleagues. The report found he had bullied one person and said it made no finding that he had bullied others.
Barry Jones, the London regional official for the University College Union, said: “It is shameful that President Alice Gast and CFO Muir Sanderson still remain in post after being found to have bullied staff and treated them with such disrespect. UCU members report an endemic culture of bullying at Imperial, a culture which hits marginalised staff the hardest.”
Imperial is subject to an investigation by the universities watchdog, the Office for Students, over the bullying allegations. It was announced last year that Gast – the highest-paid university chief among the elite Russell Group – is to step down from her £554,000 role when her contract expires this year.
Sanderson’s behaviour to one victim was described as “aggressive and intimidating”. She was undermined and spoken to in a condescending and offensive way, with “stark examples” such as being addresses as “young lady” and being told to “watch her tone”.
“The evidence I heard also raises questions about whether MS’s character and powerful role within the College, encompassing the roles of both CFO and COO, impact on good decision-making in the College,” McNeill wrote.
McNeill said there was reference to “alpha male” behaviour by Sanderson and some others – but there was insufficient evidence to lead her to conclude there was a sexist culture. However, comments such as “watch your tone, young lady” should alert the college authorities to a risk of a complaint of sex discrimination arising from similar comments or behaviours, she said.
Similarly, she warned that other comments could suggest negative treatment relating to other protected characteristics. For example, one witness alleged that Sanderson had used the expression “[leaving] the plantation”.
“These types of comments have no place in a modern workplace. It is troubling in this day and age that one of the most senior employees at an institution like Imperial College should think that a comment made by a senior employee referring to a ‘one-armed black lesbian’ should be treated as a joke,” the report found.
Sanderson said he had no recollection of using the term.
Referring to Gast’s behaviour and the impact on a victim, whose name is redacted, the report said: “AG, as president of the College, has exercised her position in such a way as to undermine [X] both personally and professionally. [X’s] self-esteem and self-confidence have been badly affected and [X] has suffered from lack of sleep and weight loss.”
Other findings about the overall culture at Imperial – which echoed concerns that have been expressed consistently in confidence to the Guardian by a range of staff – included “a culture of making disparaging comments about others who are absent”.
Gast said on Thursday: “It was personally devastating for me to find that my behaviour fell short of both the College’s and my own expectations and that it had affected a colleague in this way.”
“I repeat my sincere apologies. I pledged to use the experience as a catalyst for positive change for both me and Imperial. In the two years since these events took place, I have worked hard to ensure that my colleagues feel fully supported as we all contribute to improvements in the College culture.”
Sanderson said: “The report makes as uncomfortable reading now as it did in 2020. I have apologised for my actions and I remain sorry. I cooperated fully with the investigation and accepted the disciplinary sanctions applied.”
Despite her apology, a ruling by the ICO on the release of details of the report revealed that Gast argued that it should not be released as the findings against her were “relatively minor”, a claim the ICO dismissed.
It also rejected her drawing of parallels between herself and Dr Kathleen Stock, the philosophy professor who resigned from her job at the University of Sussex after a row over her views on gender identification and transgender rights.
