How Paul Curran “sidelined and undervalued” staff at his last uni and demanded they signed up for PhDs

City’s vice-chancellor made staff at his last university feel “sidelined and undervalued” by heavily pushing a research agenda, a senior Bournemouth University lecturer has told The Square.

Paul Curran’s “research and finance-driven” plan was said to run counter to the university’s practical courses. In fact, Bournemouth had advertised itself as a ‘vocational university’ – a title the vice-chancellor soon did away with.

The senior staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, said the impact of the changes was “discernable” and teaching began to “take second place” to research initiatives.

Contact hours between tutors and students were also heavily reduced.

An apparent 150 staff lost their jobs at Bournemouth during the vice-chancellor’s reign, during which time all new academic staff were required to have a PhD and current staff were forced to sign up for one.

The senior lecturer said: “New academic staff might have had a PhD but often had little practical experience; in my view students were short changed.”

For staff, “the pressures of the academic workload increased and there was little sense of a nurturing and supportive work environment”.

The source added: “It was no surprise that once Bournemouth University had risen through the research ranks he might use this ‘success’ to set his sights on another University – such as City.”

When Curran left Bournemouth, a spokesman for the University and College Union described his tenure as “disastrous”, saying the vice-chancellor’s legacy “would be a climate of fear and intimidation” and they were looking forward to reversing many of his changes.

City recruited about 140 people for their research skills between 2011 and 2013 as part of the Vice Chancellor’s strategy to boost the university’s international reputation.

It is feared that such a focus on research is just an attempt to climb the league tables and won’t help students out.