Senior Academic Staff Research Articles

Women and power: How can we change the system?

In 1988 a judicial Committee of Inquiry was commissioned to investigate allegations concerning research undertaken at National Women's Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, on women with cervical abnormalities. The inquiry found that this and other research had been undertaken and that senior academic and clinical staff had known but that the women had rarely been informed. Their report found that many women had been undertreated and some had died. The findings stimulated widespread public debate on issues of medical ethics. The report made recommendations for reform, but few have been implemented. These events and an analysis of the resistance to reform, especially on issues concerning patient rights and medical ethics, are the focus of this article.

Higher Education and Industry

AbstractUniversity research in Australia has in the past been devoted primarily to basic curiosity‐initiated research based on the English model. Most senior academic staff have had advanced degrees from British universities and the ethos of pure research has permeated their work. In 1984 68 per cent of all higher education research and development was classified as basic research. The impetus for change in the early 1980s has come largely from federal government. In particular shrinking per student grants have forced universities to try to supplement their incomes from other sources. This paper summarizes and analyses some of the new initiatives and concludes with an examination of future prospects.

UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY, LEEDS MATERNITY HOSPITAL AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF MEDICAL EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS, NOVEMBER 1986: An Inter-University Workshop on undergraduate teaching and course design in obstetrics and gynaecology

Summary. A Workshop held in November 1986 is described at which senior academic staff from the departments of obstetrics and gynaecology of 28 United Kingdom and Irish medical schools debated the design and content of undergraduate clinical courses. The subjects addressed at the five plenary sessions were: the location of clinical teaching in obstetrics and gynaecology within the overall curriculum; the knowledge, skills and attitudes which students should acquire; interdepartmental liaison between obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and the basic sciences; the place of audiovisual and computer-assisted learning; and the validation of educational results by audit. The consensus achieved at each session is presented. The meeting was the first of its kind in the UK and was agreed by the delegates to have been educationally valuable, the general view being that it be repeated in 2 years. It was agreed that the concept and design of the workshop be made available to academics in other clinical disciplines in order that they might explore the viability of similar workshops in their own fields.

A Survey of Recreational Participation by the College Senior Academic and Administrative Staff of the University of Nigeria

A Survey of Recreational Participation by the College Senior Academic and Administrative Staff of the University of Nigeria

University Salaries: Faculty Differentials

This paper extends and brings up to date the original work of Bowen on pay among subjects in universities in the United Kingdom.2 Following Bowen we use faculty differentials to mean systematic variations in economic well-being among university teachers among subjects. For years some the university profession, except for Medicine, has had a uniform set of salary scales, which consists of: (i) a minimum and/or maximum salary for each grade; and (ii) annual increments in the lecturer and senior lecturer grades. Uniformity of salary scales need not, however, be matched by uniformity in over-all economic wellbeing; nor does it reflect uniformity of market pressures in various faculties. No rules govern the point on the scale at which an individual is placed, nor are there formal constraints on non-salary benefits. The main staffing constraint restricts the proportion of senior academic staff in any university to 35 per cent. of the total staff. The combination of unequal labour market pressure and uniformity in salary scales may be resolved by universities in one or both of two ways: (1) If universities are determined to have staff of equal quality in all faculties, they will have to adjust over-all net advantages to recruit as effectively in subjects where the labour market is more tight as in those where it is less tight. Universities may make this adjustment within the constraint of uniform salary scales in a variety of ways: (i) by establishing a higher proportion of senior posts in faculties where the labour market is tight; (ii) by increasing salaries within grades to those in short supply by placement higher up the incremental scales; (iii) by allowing groups of academics in short supply easier access to outside earnings-this solution may be the outcome of having no policy at all in such matters; and (iv) by providing non-pecuniary amenities: personal secretaries, light teaching load, research assistants and so on. (2) Alternatively, universities may refuse to adjust net advantages, and accept the recruitment implications of having uniform salary scales. Possible consequences are that: (i) new posts may not be created in certain faculties because of anticipated recruitment difficulties; (ii)

University Clinical Teachers

Sir,?A meeting of the senior academic staff holding honorary consultant posts was recently held at this Institute to discuss the present situation as regards our terms of service (27 August, Supplement, p. 116). I have been asked to convey the disquiet we feel at the present situation, and to request that further representations be made on our behalf to the University Grants Committee and the Minister of Education. We recognize that we are a very small section of the medical profession as a whole, but it is no exaggeration to say that upon us the standards of British academic medicine, both in its teaching and research aspects, very largely depend. Our contributions to medical knowledge are, perhaps, one of the most im portant factors in the maintenance of that high prestige that British medical research currently enjoys internationally. One result of this prestige is the increasing drain from our ranks to senior research and teaching posts overseas. By any yardstick of professional merit and ability one may care to choose?whether possession of higher qualifications, publica tions, contributions to international meetings, or the standard of clinical teaching and care found in our teaching hospitals?we believe that we do not compare unfavourably with our colleagues in the Health Service. Yet we find ourselves penalized in terms of salary by amounts ranging from ?500 to ?1,000 per annum because we are employed by a university and work in a teaching-hospital setting. We regard this situation as quite irrational and completely indefensible. All of us on this Committee, which com prises all the staff of this Institute affected, would be most grateful if a further represen tation could be made to the University Grants Committee and the Minister on our behalf ; this would help to rectify a matter which is causing deep disquiet and one which has been outstanding too long.?I am, etc., Richard P. Michael, Chairman, Senior Medical Teachers-and Research Staff Committee. Institute of Psychiatry, University of London.

University Clinical Teachers

Sir,?A meeting of the senior academic staff holding honorary consultant posts was recently held at this Institute to discuss the present situation as regards our terms of service (27 August, Supplement, p. 116). I have been asked to convey the disquiet we feel at the present situation, and to request that further representations be made on our behalf to the University Grants Committee and the Minister of Education. We recognize that we are a very small section of the medical profession as a whole, but it is no exaggeration to say that upon us the standards of British academic medicine, both in its teaching and research aspects, very largely depend. Our contributions to medical knowledge are, perhaps, one of the most im portant factors in the maintenance of that high prestige that British medical research currently enjoys internationally. One result of this prestige is the increasing drain from our ranks to senior research and teaching posts overseas. By any yardstick of professional merit and ability one may care to choose?whether possession of higher qualifications, publica tions, contributions to international meetings, or the standard of clinical teaching and care found in our teaching hospitals?we believe that we do not compare unfavourably with our colleagues in the Health Service. Yet we find ourselves penalized in terms of salary by amounts ranging from ?500 to ?1,000 per annum because we are employed by a university and work in a teaching-hospital setting. We regard this situation as quite irrational and completely indefensible. All of us on this Committee, which com prises all the staff of this Institute affected, would be most grateful if a further represen tation could be made to the University Grants Committee and the Minister on our behalf ; this would help to rectify a matter which is causing deep disquiet and one which has been outstanding too long.?I am, etc., Richard P. Michael, Chairman, Senior Medical Teachers-and Research Staff Committee. Institute of Psychiatry, University of London.