Concerns about impartiality put to rest

No more will anybody have to worry about the possibility that members of University Council - the 'independent' body that scrutinises the activities of senior management and is responsible for, among other things, appointing a Vice Chancellor - are accepting hospitality from the University or having cash and contracts supplied to them.

Because now, the University of Salford's charter has been amended to make such activities a permitted matter of policy!

"The University may, and may only, confer benefits on members of the Council if the benefit has been authorised by the Council in accordance with the Ordinances. In this clause "benefit" includes:

a) Buying any goods or services from the University;
b) Selling goods, services or any interest in land to the University;
c) Being employed by, or receiving any remuneration from the University;
d) Receiving any other financial benefit from the University"

The University of Salford now has an "independent" governing body which has granted itself the right to vote to bestow itself with financial benefits from the University's charitable accounts.

Even our Members of Parliament have recognised the lunacy of the sovereign chamber deciding its own pay and remuneration policies.

Perhaps the University of Salford will set a more positive example than Parliament managed to? That said, we may never find out, as the University is proving even more robust in preventing public scrutiny of its accounts than Parliament has, having refused well over 100 Freedom of Information Requests about them.

The Curious Case of Ian Austin

Spare a thought for poor Ian Austin who, as former Managing Partner at Halliwells LLP, had to endure burdens that we mortals could not even imagine.

This included the horrors of having to slice up a £15m cash windfall as profit, to be trousered by him and his co-Equity Partners, before the humiliating experience of having to watch as Halliwells LLP went into Administration.

As if that weren't enough, his colleagues are not even supplying him with a sympathetic showing for his plight.

We trust, in the spirit of academia which so often flourishes in Britain, that he will be given a much fairer deal in his other official role, as Chair of the Audit Committee at the University of Salford!