Birmingham Vice Chancellor report

Dear University of Birmingham,

Section 5 of the University of Birmingham statutes states:[1]

"The Vice-Chancellor and Principal shall be appointed by the
Council on the recommendation of a joint committee of the Council
and the Senate consisting of three members of the Council and three
members of the Senate with an additional member from among the Lay
Members of the Council who shall chair the committee. This
committee shall consult the Senate before making a recommendation
to the Council.

"2. Subject to Section 14 of the Statutes the Vice-Chancellor and
Principal shall hold office for such period and under such terms
and conditions as may be determined by the Council."

Please may I be sent:

(A) a copy of the recommendation of the said joint committee, as
submitted to the Council, regarding the appointment of your current
Vice Chancellor, Professor David Eastwood;[2] and

(B) a copy of the said period and terms and conditions as
determined by the Council for his office holding.

The equivalent statute in other universities[3] uses the word
"report" rather than "recommendation", so I am making an assumption
that this recommendation is put in writing along with a statement
of who served on the committee. If my assumption is incorrect, and
the recommendation was communicated in some other way, please
provide me with a reference in the minutes of the Council[4] to
when it was done as I have been unable to locate it.

Yours faithfully,

Julian Todd

[1] http://www.as.bham.ac.uk/legislation/doc...

[2] http://www.mgmtgroup.bham.ac.uk/members/...

[3]
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ke...

[4] http://www.council.bham.ac.uk/meetings/

Dear Information Compliance Manager,

Thank you for your response on 21 December to my request for
information about the appointment of your current Vice Chancellor
and the terms and conditions as determined by the Council for his
office holding.

I understand that you have withheld the report to the Council in
its entirety because it contains personal information relating to
the Vice Chancellor and may identify other unsuccessful candidates.

I see also that you have withheld any and all information about the
terms and conditions of the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor by
virtue of Section 40 (Personal information).

Please reconsider the applied exemptions to my request in light of
the guidance available in the document "Access to information about
public authorities' employees" available here:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

The information I have requested about terms and conditions of the
Vice-Chancellor's employment should be seen as being part of his
professional, rather than personal, life. There is a
well-established principle that it is in public interest to
disclose the terms and conditions of employment of senior
management of public institutions, especially when these may
contain packages of financial incentives that are intended to
reward particular managerial behaviour that affect the strategic
direction of the public institutions.

With regards to the report by the Joint Committee to the Council,
the minutes state that this contains:

(a) a summary of the search and appointment process
(b) a recommendation that Professor David Eastwood, current Chief
Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, be
appointed as the next Vice-Chancellor and Principle of the
University of Birmingham with effect from April 2009
(c) Professor Eastwood's curriculum vitae

I have addressed the matter relating to professional information
about the newly appointed Vice Chancellor, Professor Eastwood,
above, but would like to add that his curriculum vitae is a
self-promotional document that is likely to have been circulated
widely among many persons unknown to him with his consent in the
process of applying for jobs, so it would be irregular if it were
suddenly to be considered confidential. Members and future members
of the University of Birmingham have a right to know the
professional achievements of their Vice Chancellor that make him
suitably qualified for the job.

As to the information about the unsuccessful candidates contained
in the report, I am sure that these names can be redacted from the
document while leaving important information about the process,
such as the number of candidates who applied and the number who
were called for an interview.

Given the difficulty in obtaining normal academic jobs these days,
with up to several hundred qualified applicants chasing a single
job, there is a legitimate public interest in knowing about the
competitiveness among applicants for filling vacancies in the
senior management structures in these institutions.

Please pass this letter to the person who handles Freedom of
Information request internal reviews.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd