Court upholds lecturer’s dismissal despite student protests

The University of Groningen (RUG) in the Netherlands acted justifiably when it dismissed Associate Professor Susanne Täuber “due to seriously disrupted relations”, the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal said in a ruling issued on Wednesday 10 January, reports NL Times. The university also made enough effort to find her another position, it found.

The senior lecturer was fired in March, which led to unrest at the RUG. The subdistrict court ruled in favour of the RUG in March, and the appeals court came to the same conclusion. In its ruling, the court said it could not accept the argument that the RUG thwarted the associate professor’s career with “false and arbitrary arguments”. These “unjustified accusations” from Täuber disrupted the employment relationship with her management just before she published a critical essay about the situation.

According to Täuber, that essay is the actual reason for her dismissal. The essay was about how special processes for hiring women for senior positions can be counterproductive. Such a programme can actually lead to discrimination, the associate professor stated.
Full report on the NL Times site