Grant survives No Confidence vote as students cry foul over “management interference”

The results of UCLU’s recent referendum provoked more questions than it answered after students complained that the results were subject to “management interference”.

The referendum covered three questions, the first of which was: “Does UCLU have confidence in Malcolm Grant as President and Provost of UCL?”

In a record turnout for the Union of just over 3,300 students, 1699 students voted ‘Yes’, 1185 voted ‘No’, and 391 abstained.

The turnout was in part inspired by Rex Knight, UCL’s Vice-Provost (Operations), who sent an email to the entire student body expressing concern that “the campaign for No Confidence has made claims which are misleading and untruthful” and encouraging students to vote.

In a response posted on their website, the No Confidence campaign said it was “shocking that UCL managers have used the resources of the College to interfere in the democratic process [of the Students’ Union]”.

However, the Yes Provost team dismissed this claim, commenting: “We think it is clear to see that UCL students are proud of UCL and of their Provost, and will turn out through voting in a referendum to show this. “The result is a credit to UCL, its students, and the campaign team who worked so hard to get students to vote; a feat that is not often easy to accomplish.“

The precise effect of Knight’s email is being investigated by the Union, according to Luke Durigan, the Chair of UCLU’s Trustee Board. One of the leaders of the No Confidence campaign, Michael Chessum, said that early data indicated a spike of 750 hits on the UCL website in the immediate aftermath of Knight’s email, “a figure higher than the [‘Yes’ campaign’s] margin of victory”.

The email follows earlier controversy when Knight wrote to the UCLU Trustee Board warning that the No Confidence move could have a “significant impact on our approach to future investment”.

Professor Grant, appointed NHS Commissioning Board Chair last year, is being criticised for agreeing to implement the Coalition government’s health and social care bill. According to UCLU, the reshaping of the NHS will be “complicit in the carving up of the NHS as a public service”. This came after an earlier No Confidence motion passed at a members’ meeting.

The motion stated that: “The NHS Bill and the programme of education reforms – fees, cuts and the HEWhite Paper – are bad for students and constitute a fundamental threat to the welfare state, as well as being undemocratic and without electoral mandate.”

However, as there were students outside the room unable to attend the members’ meeting, UCLU passed the No Confidence motion onto a referendum of the entire College’s population.

The referendum opened on January 19 and closed Thursday 26 January. The UCLU website explained its actions, saying that, “whilst Professor Grant has worked to improve UCL and its position as a world class university, he has also served to undermine public services, including providing support for the increases in tuition fees.

“UCL may now be associated with the changes to the NHS.”

Chessum, who is a third year History student and former students’ union officer, said that Malcolm Grant would be “under very real pressure” from UCL and academics to resign should the motion pass.

He added: “UCL would be faced with an explosion of campus radicalism and people who are willing to occupy various spaces on campus” despite its reputation of being “quite a low-profile campus politically”.

The senior management team is said to have expressed full confidence in former Russell Group chairman Professor Grant. Rex Knight said that the no-confidence motion had been “undertaken without any consideration of the potential huge reputational impact for both UCL and UCLU”.

In a letter to the union’s trustees last month, Mr Knight said that the vote “is bound to have a significant impact on the relationship (between the union and the university), our approach to future investment and our view of the roles and responsibilities of the union”.

A UCL spokesman said that following the National Student Survey, the “vast majority” of students were satisfied with their time at the college and only a “tiny minority are engaged in this debate.”

He added: “We note their concerns, but student politics have always enabled small numbers of individuals to pursue their interests, without having any impact on the life of the university.”

A petition in support of Grant was also signed and circulated by 23 UCL alumni.