Where are they now – part 94

Kingston has had a few management figures pass through its doors these past few years who earned themselves a level of notoriety while they were here. Indeed this blog has published a few paeans to our well paid and equally disliked masters. Most of us have little interest in what happened to them afterwards, probably heaving a sigh of good riddance, only for the relief to fade when the next incompetent incumbent came along.

Staff in SEC will never forget the mad axewoman of Pharmacology, Edith Sim, who slashed and burned her way through the academics. The only good thing this arch bully did was clip the wings of that other serial bully, Unprofessor Graeme Jones. Well, maybe a faculty can only have one bully at a time (no, not true). Once she had gone — retired to emeritus positions both at Kingston and Oxford, whence she came originally — the reeling staff who remained had to endure Mike Sutcliffe, who though a bumbling figure unsuited to the job, was nothing like as toxic.

What of Nona McDuffer, Kingston’s utterly hopeless head of equality at one time, later to become the hopeless head of student achievement? It’s a mark of Kingston how she was given more credence as an educational researcher than experienced academics. All this with only a couple of years teaching experience in FE. Still, give her due credit for all two of her two co-authored publications. And now? She has wangled herself a job as pro VC at Solent, a kind of Kingston-on-sea. How the minor have risen! All that experience bullshitting at Kingston stood her in good stead. She had good teachers in the SMT, now rebadged the SLT (the L must stand for lamentable, or laughable).

Finally this blog notes that Matt Hiely-Rayner, erstwhile head of planning, has moved sideways into the same job at Buckinghamshire New University, not to be confused with Buckingham University, the first private university in Britain. Having wangled the league table figures at Kingston for a few years, Matt Tightly-Suited thought he could probably do the same for an old tech college, and no doubt he is now Matt Even-more-Hiely-Remunerated. At least he knew what he was doing, which is more than you can say for the rest of them.  

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5 Responses to Where are they now – part 94

  1. Sir Tim says:

    But did Helen Sharman wow the Senior Management Team with her publication record at interview, and offer the team valuable insights into maintaining the institution’s revenue stream?:

    https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-us/books/helen-sharman/bums-on-seats/9780713636628?

    Apparently, her interview performance was “out of this world”.

  2. Prof. Lapping says:

    Dissenter, perhaps this site would benefit from a page: “Kingston’s Most Wanted”.
    This would feature mugshots of the various overbearing buffoons who blighted the lives of staff.

    Am thinking each mugshot could be accompanied by:

    Name,
    Nickname/Alias,
    Faculty, School
    Scandal(s) caught up in,
    Management soundbites,
    Number of known grievances filed against,
    Number of employment tribunals involved in,
    Last known whereabouts,
    Reason(s) for dismissal,
    Average weekly student contact hours,
    Publication list

  3. Frank Morris says:

    Hopefully, these former employee headbangers alluded to are all sharing a padded-cell together, forced to endure each other’s company (especially since some of the bullies were themselves the subject of bullying by the more senior bullies of this select group [oh, the beautiful irony of it!]), and, most importantly, no longer in any positions of authority over others.

  4. Miss Mary says:

    Things at KBS are so bad that one can only laugh 😆. Our very own Northern Napoleon and his bumbling no talent army of yes women are destroying everything which was good at KBS. Latest is sweeping changes to leadership (does such a thing exist) roles. More concerning news is that few top tutors are firming up plans to jump the sinking ship leaving us with more fools to deal with student lot. God save us, where is the dean? She is busy buying sneakers 🤣

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