Many will have been relieved at the departure this summer of Queasy McQuillan, but also a little surprised at the abruptness. The brief note on the staff website disappeared soon after it announced McQuillan’s leaving for “personal reasons”, a phrase often used euphemistically, especially in political spheres. One comment below this blog’s post on the matter alleges financial irregularities. This surprised even Dissenter: the SMT is well known for its contempt for the staff and incompetent management but fingers in the till …? However, investigations by this blog suggest the allegation stands up. McQuillan was up to financial no good, embezzling research funds, according to commenter ‘Jack Dawson’. No wonder he was so keen on raising research income as he cracked his whip over the wretched staff.
Damn good riddance we all think. From the management’s point of view such behaviour by a senior manager looks very bad for Kingston University, which is why, no doubt, it has been hushed up. To protect KU’s reputation (such as it is) a dishonest manager has got away with it.
So one more bad egg goes, leaving how many? Well, Tuninga, scourge of Business, is still here. One just hopes the rest of the SMT are learning from the mistakes of recent years and starting to behave more like senior managers. With imminent redundancies during the next crumbling step in Plan2020, and the introduction of some really bad software (more of which later), that looks unlikely at present.
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Hi Dissenter, is this Kingston University Scandal blog also your one?
It’s independent of Dissenter’s Blog, though we dissenters are many.
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Bad reputation gone worse. I’ve applied for internal/external moneys, and it was never publicised where certain of these moneys went, or who eventually ‘won’ them. Why bother, when even what you scraped together is going to be 60% topped? I wonder – why aren’t we a leading research University?
Another Fine Mess
As a relatively new member of staff in the BS it seems to me that the Dean spends most of his time trying to get worthless accreditations and chasing new students in far-flung places such as Papua New Guinea.
He leaves the day-to-day running of the Faculty to his SMT, who seem to respond to every little issue like a clutch of hens spooked by a fox – much clucking and flapping of wings with little effect. Ironic really, given that students are taught strategic decision-making, that the management are incapable of practising the same. Academics, teach thyselves.
I understand that Unified is going to be shelved as it is simply not fit for purpose. Millions spent and it has been a disaster. Irene should have listened to me. I wonder if Queasy McQuillan has any links to the company.