University torn apart by £3.8m tobacco deal Lecturers quit in protest at Nottingham's 'humiliating' link with BAT but vice-chancellor remains defiant By Sarah Cassidy Education Correspondent 19 June 2001 An English university is facing accusations that it has sold its good reputation for £3.8m from a tobacco company in a dispute that has divided its academic community. The deal between Nottingham University and British American Tobacco has been described as "a terrible humiliation" for the university and prompted predictions of a mass exodus of staff because of its "ethically wrong" decision. One senior university figure, the East Midlands MEP Mel Read, who resigned last week, is the latest in a long line of academics, lecturers and advisers to have severed their links with the university in protest at BAT's donation to set up Britain's first international centre for business ethics. Richard Davidson, a spokesman for the Cancer Research Campaign, said: "Nottingham is facing an exodus of people and it will only get worse. As more people leave, the university will lose prestige." In March, Professor David Thurston, a leading cancer researcher, announced he was moving his team of 15 scientists to London University, saying: "The university is seen to encourage smoking and that is ethically wrong." Last month, Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal, resigned his unpaid post as a professor of medical journalism at the university in protest. And the university's star business graduate, John Rouse, 32, a former ministerial adviser who took a year off to do an MBA, rejected a Student of the Year award. The BAT donation, although important, has also ended up costing the university money the Cancer Research Campaign dropped plans to raise £1.5m for new buildings because of the deal. A question mark hangs over future funding from the cancer charity which currently donates £1.4m a year to support more than 50 cancer researchers at Nottingham. The deal has caused anger on the university's 330-acre parkland campus where, with 10 applications for every student place and an excellent research record, people usually try to get in, rather than get out. Professor Malcolm Stevens, the head of cancer research, said: "I think things are going to get a lot worse. Obviously it will have an impact on cancer research at Nottingham... This has been a terrible humiliation for the university. Scientists of international stature may think twice before they come if they believe they may face problems trying to get funding." But unease at accepting the "tainted" money is not limited to cancer researchers. A letter calling for the university to hand back BAT's donation is being circulated among its paediatric staff, while three-quarters of lecturers at its School of Education signed a petition opposing the deal. Teacher trainers believe the donation has put them in a morally untenable position because they train students to tell children not to smoke. Dayncourt secondary school in Radcliffe-on-Trent, which takes 10 Nottingham trainees on teaching practice every year, has written to protest at the contradiction. Outrage at the decision is widespread, says Sandi Golbey, of the Association of University Teachers. In an AUT survey of more than 200 University of Nottingham lecturers, more than 80 per cent, agreed the donation had brought the university into disrepute. Ms Golbey said: "It is literally unbelievable that they have taken this money. BAT have a lot to gain by association with a university of the calibre of Nottingham. People will think that they can't be all bad if Nottingham will take their money." The Student Union has called for university rules to be changed to ban future donations from tobacco companies. Its president, Alain de Sales, believes student opposition to the deal has strengthened. But he says student applications will probably be unaffected because applicants are won over by its academic record. The vice-chancellor, Sir Colin Campbell, has fully backed the project. The university insists it has done nothing wrong and believes the long-term benefits of establishing the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility will outweigh any short-term negative publicity. BAT's £3.8m will fund a professorial chair at the university's business school and bring a visiting professor from the developing world. It will also pay for scholarships to bring students from developing countries to study at the centre. Philip Dalling, the university's head of public affairs, said: "I don't think there will be a mass exodus of people. But in the current atmosphere it will be represented that anyone leaving has done so because of the donation." Professor Ian Gow, head of the business school where the centre will be based, said: "BAT is a legitimate company; the Treasury takes its money in tax and spends it on things like the NHS. Why is it wrong to take money from it and plough it into higher education?" Full article at: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/education/story.jsp?story=78946 Michael Keaney Mercuria Business School Martinlaaksontie 36 01620 Vantaa Finland [EMAIL PROTECTED]
