Only a quarter of staff at Cambridge University are satisfied with how their department tackles bullying and harassment, according to an internal survey seen by the Observer.
Cambridge undertook its staff culture survey in January 2024 and is now facing accusations from academics that it tried to cover up the “grim” results, which have been released through freedom of information (FoI) requests.
A spokesperson for the university said this weekend that it was supporting departments to take action where issues had been identified. They said: “We take concerns about bullying seriously and strongly encourage anyone who experiences such behaviour to report it.”
Just 27% of staff agreed that they were happy with attempts to address bullying and harassment – with some of the most high-profile science departments scoring especially badly – and only half of staff (52%) said their department supported their mental health and wellbeing.
The results have prompted an academic at the university, astrophysicist Prof Wyn Evans, to break with tradition and seek nominations in the forthcoming election of Cambridge’s new chancellor on an anti-bullying manifesto, after Labour peer David Sainsbury announced his resignation from the post last year.
Evans said: “This survey reveals a grim culture of bullying and harassment, yet the most shocking thing of all is that the university found this out a year ago and hasn’t taken any action.
“If a senior academic is valuable to the university because they hold a lot of research grants bringing in a lot of money, Cambridge won’t touch them,” he added. “If there is a grievance, it will be discarded.”
The chancellorship is a largely ceremonial position that is expected to attract big name alumni, including leading politicians and peers. William Hague, the former Conservative leader and foreign secretary, was elected chancellor of Oxford University last November, and Prince Philip preceded Lord Sainsbury at Cambridge.
Evans said that having an outward-facing ambassadorial chancellor had worked well in the past, but the university was facing an “internal crisis” of bullying and too many academics on insecure short-term contracts. It now needed a chancellor who would push for “sweeping reforms”.
A survey by the university and the three main campus unions in 2020 found that nearly a third of staff had experienced bullying or harassment at work in the previous 18 months. Then vice-chancellor Stephen Toope wrote a statement to accompany the survey results, pledging action and stating: “To be a leading institution, we must accept this type of behaviour has no place at Cambridge.”
The university is far from alone in facing challenges of this kind. In 2020, a survey by the Wellcome Trust, one of the largest charitable funders of research in the UK, questioned more than 4,000 researchers across 20 universities, and found that nearly two-thirds of them had witnessed bullying and harassment, and 43% had experienced it themselves.
More than three-quarters of them felt that intense competition to win research grants and publish in high-profile journals – with research departments also competing to perform well in league tables and respond to government initiatives – had created “unkind and aggressive” conditions.
Diego Baptista, head of research and funding equity at Wellcome, said: “Research shouldn’t come at the cost of damaging people’s wellbeing, and it’s encouraging to see institutions asking students and staff about the issues they face.”
He added: “The research sector can and should learn from one another. By painting a picture of people’s experiences, we are all better placed to design a positive and inclusive research culture.”
Wellcome has explicit anti-bullying, exploitation and harassment rules as a pre-condition of its grants, and in 2018 revoked £3.5m in funding from Prof Nazneen Rahman, one of Britain’s leading cancer scientists, who was then based at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, after 45 colleagues made accusations of bullying and harassment.
Rahman, who resigned from the institute, denied the allegations and said at the time “there were no disciplinary findings against me”.
Cambridge declined to release survey results for some of its departments under FoI. However, among the detailed results seen by the Observer, there are some departments with more concerning results. In the Medical Research Council toxicology unit, 69% of staff who responded disagreed or strongly disagreed when asked if they were happy with how bullying and harassment was addressed.
In the department of pathology, this figure was 61%; in the Cavendish laboratory of physics it was 58%; and at both the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute and in the department of oncology it was 50%. Other departments with close to half of staff disagreeing or strongly disagreeing that these issues were tackled well included earth sciences, history and astronomy.
A cancer researcher who left the university recently and claims they were “intimidated, harassed and bullied” by a senior academic at CRUK Cambridge Institute said: “Research was my whole life. I really looked forward to coming into the department, exchanging ideas and inspiring research students. I was left despairing and had many months of demoralisation.”
The researcher said: “The ordeal ruined my personal life. I stopped sleeping. I had support from friends, colleagues and former students – but from the university just bland exhortations to see the GP.”
Dr Krzysztof Potempa, founder of biotech startup Braincures, supported a colleague in blowing the whistle on bullying at a UK research institute and now campaigns for universities to tackle the issue better. He said: “Sadly, complaints against revenue-generating professors often result in the victim leaving, while the perpetrator continues to build their career.”
The spokesperson for Cambridge added: “The university strives to provide an inclusive and supportive working environment where all staff feel valued.”
He said that the university had introduced a new code of behaviour and updated its dignity-at-work and grievance policies.