New vice-chancellor to probe staff pay and conditions

The Guardian 13 January 2023

The University Oxford’s new vice-chancellor has said that one of her first acts will be to investigate the pay and working conditions of the university’s staff, in an attempt to alleviate the “really tough” pressures on junior academics in particular, writes Richard Adams for The Guardian.

Professor Irene Tracey was inaugurated on Tuesday 10 January as Oxford’s 273rd vice-chancellor since 1230 – but only the second woman and the first to be educated at an English comprehensive school. Tracey said she “absolutely recognises” the pressures that young staff members are going through, both from her own experience having been leader of the university’s clinical neuroscience department, as well as in her most recent post as head of Oxford’s Merton College.

In the ceremony at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre marking her admission, the vice-chancellor announced she would commission an independent inquiry into the pay and working conditions affecting all staff – academic and non-academic. Staff at Oxford recently took part in national industrial action by members of the University and College Union (UCU), which shows no sign of ending after employers’ representatives declined to make an improved offer at a meeting with UCU this week.
Full report on The Guardian site

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