University boss refuses to quit over ‘bullying’ report that criticised her ‘adverse, abrupt and unempathetic treatment’ of staff
- Imperial College London president Professor Alice Gast earns £519,000 a year
- Report is released after a lengthy Freedom of Information battle with Imperial
- It criticised Alice Gast for ‘adverse, abrupt and unempathetic treatment’ of staff
One of Britain’s top university bosses is refusing to step down despite a damning report finding she contributed to a ‘culture of bullying’.
Imperial College London president Professor Alice Gast – who earns £519,000 a year – presides over a ‘toxic’ workplace where staff are treated like ‘naughty little children’, witnesses told a secret bullying and harassment inquiry in 2020.
The report was finally released yesterday after The Daily Mail won a lengthy Freedom of Information battle with Imperial.
It criticised Professor Gast – who was once the highest-paid vice-chancellor in the country – for ‘adverse, abrupt and unempathetic treatment’ of staff.
Imperial College London president Professor Alice Gast – who earns £519,000 a year – presides over a ‘toxic’ workplace where staff are treated like ‘naughty little children’, witnesses told a secret bullying and harassment inquiry in 2020
She had bullied one colleague by undermining her ‘both personally and professionally’, damaging the victim’s ‘self-esteem and self-confidence’ and leading to ‘lack of sleep and weight loss’.
The internal report also found apparent mockery of ethnic minorities. Professor Gast’s close associate, college chief financial officer Muir Sanderson, made what appears to have been a racially-charged remark about someone ‘[leaving] the plantation’, independent investigator Jane McNeill, QC, wrote.
He regarded a comment by a former senior employee about a ‘one-armed black lesbian’ as a ‘joke’ and had bullied two colleagues, calling one woman ‘young lady’ and telling her to ‘watch her tone’.
Some of his behaviour was ‘abhorrent’, the report said. Professor Gast was aware he was regarded as a bully, but tackling it was ‘not high on her list of priorities’.
The report was finally released yesterday after The Daily Mail won a lengthy Freedom of Information battle with Imperial. A university building is pictured above
While the investigation did not identify ‘systemic bullying across the college’, the pair ‘created or contributed to a culture which involves and tolerates favouritism, exclusion, the making of disparaging comments about others and at times a lack of respect for others’.
Both issued grovelling apologies yesterday, with Professor Gast saying in an internal email she had found the process ‘personally devastating’.
But there was no indication either were considering their positions, having already shrugged off a motion of no confidence passed by the University and College Union.
Barry Jones, of the UCU, said: ‘It is shameful that president Alice Gast and CFO Muir Sanderson still remain in post after being found to have bullied staff and treated them with such disrespect.’
One whistleblower said: ‘I am appalled [they] continue to brazen this out. They have been found guilty of bullying, which the college says is gross misconduct.’
University watchdog the Office for Students is conducting its own probe over allegations of a ‘viper’s nest’ environment under Professor Gast, which first emerged last year. The Department for Education said it could not comment while that investigation was ongoing.