November 21, 2025 • 20 mins
Oxford University has repeatedly been slow to act when confronted with allegations of harassment, assault and inappropriate behavior by male academics, a new Bloomberg investigation has found.
Katherine Griffiths, the city editor of Bloomberg’s London bureau, spoke to dozens of academics, staffers and women who have studied at Oxford to understand how the storied institution has handled misconduct concerns — and why it lags behind its peers. On this episode of the Big Take podcast, she shares her findings about the barriers to addressing misconduct at Oxford, and the lasting consequences for women.
Read more: Oxford University Has Failed Women Over Harassment Concerns, Staff Say
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Earlier this year, a
woman approached Bloomberg's London office with the stories she thought
needed telling about one of the oldest and most prestigious
universities in the world.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
She's been trying to highlight problems with Oxford for a
while now.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Catherine Griffiths covers the city of London for Bloomberg with
a focus on equality and workplace culture.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And I thought, yes, we definitely should have a look
at this story and see where it might take us.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That one tip led Catherine to a deeper investigation into
multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and bullying at Oxford
University and what dozens of people Catherine talked to described
as the university's failures in handling them.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The sad truth is actually there are really quite a
lot of women both there now in this current day
and dating back years who have had really terrible experiences
and not only have been the victims of sexual assault
and harassment and bullying, but also then when they've taken
these problems to the university, they have been very, very
(01:16):
disappointed and traumatized because the university really hasn't dealt with
those issues in a way that the women felt was
the right way to deal with them.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm Sarah Holder and this is the big take from
Bloomberg News Today. On the show, an investigation into allegations
of harassment, bullying, and sexual misconduct at Oxford and why
one of the world's leading universities has been slow to
act against powerful male academics accused of inappropriate behavior. Oxford
(01:55):
is one of the most famous universities on the planet.
It's educated many of the world's most powerful people, including
political leaders in the UK. Its research labs have made
high profile scientific breakthroughs. Its gothic buildings are what many
people imagine when they picture university campus. It's where many
of the famous Hogwarts scenes were filmed for the Harry
(02:17):
Potter movies, and Bloomberg's Catherine Griffith says that within the UK,
the university looms large.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
It's a place of huge prestige. It's a place that
attracts millions and millions of pounds of donations from individuals,
from governments and from big business people who have an
interest in putting their money at a place where they
hope it can further science and further development, but where
(02:45):
also I think it's probably fair to say hope they
are going to get a little bit of that Oxford
magic rubbing off on them. They want something out of
that association too, So Oxford is all of those things.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Catherine, You've been digging into how this story influential university
handles something really important, allegations of harassment and misconduct. I'm
wondering if you can give us a sense of your
reporting process, how you know what you know.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yes, so we've spoken to nearly fifty people over many
months now. Some of those people have been able to
give us some documents that back up their own accounts
that have been incredibly useful to really really be clear
that what we've heard is accurate and fair. We found
seven women who were able to tell us about their
(03:38):
experiences over the last five years that included rapes and
sexual assaults. We found there were thirty who described experiences
of bullying and harassment dating back over about twenty years.
In some cases, women who have themselves tried to come
forward to highlight other people facing these problems and who
(03:58):
have then found themselves to be squashed down, crushed, discouraged
from taking things further. So the numbers are really quite big,
and I think if we're being realistic, there'll be plenty
of other people who who maybe have had similar experiences.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
One of the men who has been accused of harassment
is Sumitra Dutta. Who is he and what triggered Oxford's
initial investigation into him.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, So, Sumitra Dutta was the dean of Oxford's Sayid
Business School and a female academic came forward earlier this
year and made a complaint about him. She alleged that
he harrassed her on several occasions. Oxford did a formal
(04:43):
investigation into those allegations and came back over the summer
to say it was upholding those allegations. Sumitra Dutta then
left his job. None of the information about the investigation
was made public at the time. There were no reasons
(05:04):
given at the time for his departure, so we were
able to report in September that he left the university
after this investigation and after he had been found to
have harassed her.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
What has the fallout been?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So there were academics there who were very unhappy with
the way the university was dealing with the investigation. They
felt they weren't being kept informed properly, and they felt
increasingly frustrated that, in their view, the university was being
quite hostile to them and not being clear and fair
(05:42):
in its processes.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Catherine also learned something about Douta's behavior in a past
workplace that could have raised flags at Oxford.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Before Sumitra Detter worked at Oxford, he had been the
dean of the Cornell Business School for a while and
he'd had a personal relationship with a young woman, a subordinate,
and when that became known at Cornell, Semitradeter stood down
(06:13):
as dean of the Business school there. Again, none of
that information was ever put into the public domain at
the time, but.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
When he was hired at Oxford, they knew yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So he continued at Cornell, just not as dean for
a few years, and then when he came to Oxford.
My sources have said that Oxford was well aware of
the fact that this had happened at Cornell, and they
went ahead with the hiring Anyway.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Dutta did not respond to Bloomberg's request for Karmet Catherine.
The way Oxford University investigated and handled Judah's case, how
similar is that to the way that they've handled other
cases like this.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So I think one of the biggest problems, both at
Oxford and in other universities is people being accused of misconduct.
They're potentially being an investigation of some description, and the
person then leaving that job, and it all happening behind
(07:12):
closed doors without any kind of disclosure or warning or
any sort of way in which potentially a university and
institution could try to ensure that that person maybe doesn't
go somewhere else where. Clearly the risk is run that
(07:32):
they may do it again. It seems to happen time
and time again. Another person in our reporting was a
really really prestigious professor at Oxford for a long period
of time. His name is Miles Houston. He was a
professor of social psychology. He's this really really famous person
(07:53):
in his field. We've spoken to twenty women who had
real problem with him over quite a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
What did women tell you about Houston's behavior and how
it affected them?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So he ran a psychology lab and women and male
students both felt incredibly privileged to work with him. Yet
some of those women found that it was not the
kind of experience they were hoping for or expecting. Miles
Houston has behaved in a sexually harassing way to multiple
(08:34):
women over many years. According to our reporting, some of
these women described feeling flattered and overwhelmed by the tension,
not quite knowing what to do given the extreme power
and balance between them. He would give gifts to women
that they felt were intended to make them feel grateful
(08:55):
towards him. If they said to him that he had
behaved in a way that men made them feel uncomfortable,
he might use this phraseology, have I been a bad boy?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
What happened when women initially raise their concerns? How did
the university respond?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So in the case of Miles Houston, he was at
Oxford for eighteen years, so it's a story that sort
of evolved over a long time, and of course, you know,
so did society in that time. There's women who've told
us about trying to raise his behavior with others. One
woman in particular told us about trying to talk to
a harassment advisor at the university, but her recollection was
(09:35):
that this harassment advisor was more worried about the potential
fallout for the university. Eventually, in twenty seventeen, a woman
did decide she could bring a formal complaint against him,
and that really was the point at which things changed
and there was an investigation. We don't know exactly what
(09:57):
the outcome was, but we do know that Miles Houston
left to Oxford University in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And what do we know about how Houston has responded
to the university investigations and the concerns raised about his behavior.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So we have tried to ask him and he has
not replied. I've been told by sources that he described
retiring at the time from Oxford in twenty nineteen. He
has done other things in public life since then, including
now working for this Indian university. He remains a fellow
(10:34):
of the British Academy, which is a very prestigious institution
in UK society. But we haven't heard anything, certainly in
the public domain from him that reflects what he may
or may not think about these allegations.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I'm wondering, more broadly, how has Oxford's leadership responded to
allegations of harassment, bullying, sexual misconduct in their home and
what's the pattern that's emerged across all of these cases.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
For you, it has been different in different cases. We
have reported in our story on two investigations where two
men left Oxford, and the women involved in those cases
felt the outcomes were significant victories. But we have also
heard on multiple occasions about women who felt Oxford has
not done a good job in pursuing their complaints. One
(11:25):
woman described it as being like a deliberate chaos machine
where the people involved never really intended to help.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
In response to Catherine's detailed questions, Oxford said it couldn't
comment on individual cases, but provided a statement.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It's said directly through a spokesperson. Sexual harassment has no
place at Oxford. Our sympathies and thoughts are with anyone
who has experienced harassment or misconduct. We strive to ensure
that Oxford is always a safe place for all students
and staff. We take concern and seriously applying robust procedures.
(12:03):
Support for those affected is a priority, and we take
precautionary and or disciplinary action where justified. And then it
talked about a new approach. It's brought in that they
say sets out our approach, support and training. We encourage
anyone who has a concern to raise it.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
What have the last inconsequences been for women who have
experienced harassment at Oxford, and for women who have reported
harassment at Oxford.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Some people who've been through even some of these recent
investigations have said they have been very pleased with the
way people have dealt with their complaints. But the lasting
effect really is women who have been sexually assorted or
harassed or bullied, and then on top of that, who
(12:53):
have gone through processes that on the whole they have
felt to be re traumatizing, upsetting. People describe feeling that
they have post traumatic stress disorder. There are women who
have left the university. There are women who are sort
of now in limbo because they can't go back to
(13:14):
their studies necessarily, they can't move forward, and yet they're
alleged harasses have got on fine.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So why has it been so challenging to get Oxford
to hold people accountable after concerns are raised? That's next.
Bloomberg's Catherine Griffiths has been investigating how Oxford University responds
(13:46):
to allegations of misconduct, and she's uncovered a number of
reasons why one of the UK's leading universities has lagged
behind its peers. Part of it, she says, is structural.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So Oxford University is made up of more than forty
different colleges, and so if you're a student, you might
study at one particular college or another particular college, and
so if you are harrassed or assorted as a student,
you have to take that complaint in most cases to
(14:20):
your college rather than the central university. And that has
created lots and lots of problems for women who've tried
to hold their harassers to account. That's because these colleges
are their own individual legal entities. There are information sharing
arrangements in place, but in practice people say it doesn't
(14:42):
seem to happen that way, and it creates a complicated,
fragmented system.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Catherine says. Another challenge is cultural.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
So Oxford is a nine hundred odd year old institution.
People love the history and the traditions, the special class,
those people where to do exams. There's all sorts of
things which make Oxford Oxford, but certainly linked to that
are quite negative things. And those include a university that
(15:15):
can in some ways be unwilling to make changes that
other places, other parts of society, other universities maybe think
are more appropriate and moving with the times. Now, Oxford
would probably dispute that, and of course it is at
the cutting edge in many, many different ways. But it
(15:36):
is a university where the vast majority of senior professors
are men. It also has a higher number than at
some of its peers of particularly famous male professors who
bring in lots and lots of grant funding. So Oxford
very explicitly has said to us that it rejects any
(15:58):
kind of suggestion that it puts people's reputation above other
people's safety. But the experiences of people who have spoken
to us is certainly their feeling is that the reputation
of some of their alleged harassers has played into the
way Oxford has dealt with this.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
In certain cases that surface during Catherine's reporting process, the
way Oxford leadership responded also contributed to a chilling effect.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So we spoke to a young woman who was studying
for a PhD at Balliol College, and she has described
to us being sexually assaulted by a male student at
Bailliol College. She made a formal complaint about it, and
then she says the college dealt with the matter in
an incredibly unsupportive and in her view, unfair way. After that,
(16:55):
she talked to a news organization about what had happened
to her because she felt really upset and frustrated in
the light of that. Helen Gosch, who is the head
of Balliol College, she's a fairly well known person in
UK public life. She's received a damehood. She called a
meeting for students at which she challenged the young woman
(17:17):
about her account of what had happened, and leaflets were
printed out the young woman has told us, which had
some details about her case on them, including some private
information such as when the alleged sexual assault had taken place.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Following a student backlash, Balliol appointed an external investigator who
upheld some of the women's complaints. Balliol College told Bloomberg
in a statement that it takes its responsibilities seriously to
address and prevent harassment and has a rigorous set of
policies and procedures in place. It said it implemented all
the recommendations that were made in two independent reports it
(17:55):
commissioned following a harassment complaint by a student. So, after
doing all this reporting, what stands out about Oxford's process
for handling these types of issues when compared to the
measures and processes that other UK universities have.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So Oxford has changed its measures in various ways over
the years, and in September even this year has introduced
a new policy for students which is clearer and easier
to use for people who want to bring sexual harassment
non academic misconduct complaints. And that seemed to be a
(18:33):
broadly positive thing. But at the same time, there are
ways in which the university probably is still quite out
of step with other universities, and they may have policies,
but it's really how those policies are implemented and how
when people come forward in highly vulnerable states, how the
(18:53):
university actually deals with those people.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
And Catherine's sources say there's more the university could do.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
The reality is it's actually quite difficult for Oxford, any university,
any employer, to open the doors and give full disclosure
on an investigation, how it's going, what might happen to
a person who against whom discipline and reaction may be taken.
That said, I think it comes back to this point
(19:22):
about Oxford being a leader, and really people have told
us that it should be a leader in this field too.
It really needs to send the message to some of
these senior men at the university that this kind of
behavior is completely and utterly unacceptable. They need to make
it clear that they are not going to tolerate it.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
On Thursday, in response to Catherine's investigation, the Member of
Parliament for Oxford Western Abingdon Leila Moran, said she would
be following up with university leadership to understand what more
they can do to address this issue. This is the
(20:06):
Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. The show
was hosted by Me, David Gera and Wan Ha. The
show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison Dengate,
Patti hirsh Rachel Lewis, Krisky, Naomi Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson,
Naomi Shaven, Alex Hugiura, Julia Weaver, Yanyong and Taka Yasuzawa.
(20:29):
To get more from the Big Take and unlimited access
to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at Bloomberg
dot Com Slash Podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be
back on Monday.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Earlier this year, a
woman approached Bloomberg's London office with the stories she thought
needed telling about one of the oldest and most prestigious
universities in the world.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
She's been trying to highlight problems with Oxford for a
while now.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Catherine Griffiths covers the city of London for Bloomberg with
a focus on equality and workplace culture.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And I thought, yes, we definitely should have a look
at this story and see where it might take us.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
That one tip led Catherine to a deeper investigation into
multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and bullying at Oxford
University and what dozens of people Catherine talked to described
as the university's failures in handling them.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The sad truth is actually there are really quite a
lot of women both there now in this current day
and dating back years who have had really terrible experiences
and not only have been the victims of sexual assault
and harassment and bullying, but also then when they've taken
these problems to the university, they have been very, very
(01:16):
disappointed and traumatized because the university really hasn't dealt with
those issues in a way that the women felt was
the right way to deal with them.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I'm Sarah Holder and this is the big take from
Bloomberg News Today. On the show, an investigation into allegations
of harassment, bullying, and sexual misconduct at Oxford and why
one of the world's leading universities has been slow to
act against powerful male academics accused of inappropriate behavior. Oxford
(01:55):
is one of the most famous universities on the planet.
It's educated many of the world's most powerful people, including
political leaders in the UK. Its research labs have made
high profile scientific breakthroughs. Its gothic buildings are what many
people imagine when they picture university campus. It's where many
of the famous Hogwarts scenes were filmed for the Harry
(02:17):
Potter movies, and Bloomberg's Catherine Griffith says that within the UK,
the university looms large.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
It's a place of huge prestige. It's a place that
attracts millions and millions of pounds of donations from individuals,
from governments and from big business people who have an
interest in putting their money at a place where they
hope it can further science and further development, but where
(02:45):
also I think it's probably fair to say hope they
are going to get a little bit of that Oxford
magic rubbing off on them. They want something out of
that association too, So Oxford is all of those things.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Catherine, You've been digging into how this story influential university
handles something really important, allegations of harassment and misconduct. I'm
wondering if you can give us a sense of your
reporting process, how you know what you know.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yes, so we've spoken to nearly fifty people over many
months now. Some of those people have been able to
give us some documents that back up their own accounts
that have been incredibly useful to really really be clear
that what we've heard is accurate and fair. We found
seven women who were able to tell us about their
(03:38):
experiences over the last five years that included rapes and
sexual assaults. We found there were thirty who described experiences
of bullying and harassment dating back over about twenty years.
In some cases, women who have themselves tried to come
forward to highlight other people facing these problems and who
(03:58):
have then found themselves to be squashed down, crushed, discouraged
from taking things further. So the numbers are really quite big,
and I think if we're being realistic, there'll be plenty
of other people who who maybe have had similar experiences.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
One of the men who has been accused of harassment
is Sumitra Dutta. Who is he and what triggered Oxford's
initial investigation into him.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, So, Sumitra Dutta was the dean of Oxford's Sayid
Business School and a female academic came forward earlier this
year and made a complaint about him. She alleged that
he harrassed her on several occasions. Oxford did a formal
(04:43):
investigation into those allegations and came back over the summer
to say it was upholding those allegations. Sumitra Dutta then
left his job. None of the information about the investigation
was made public at the time. There were no reasons
(05:04):
given at the time for his departure, so we were
able to report in September that he left the university
after this investigation and after he had been found to
have harassed her.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
What has the fallout been?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So there were academics there who were very unhappy with
the way the university was dealing with the investigation. They
felt they weren't being kept informed properly, and they felt
increasingly frustrated that, in their view, the university was being
quite hostile to them and not being clear and fair
(05:42):
in its processes.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Catherine also learned something about Douta's behavior in a past
workplace that could have raised flags at Oxford.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Before Sumitra Detter worked at Oxford, he had been the
dean of the Cornell Business School for a while and
he'd had a personal relationship with a young woman, a subordinate,
and when that became known at Cornell, Semitradeter stood down
(06:13):
as dean of the Business school there. Again, none of
that information was ever put into the public domain at
the time, but.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
When he was hired at Oxford, they knew yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So he continued at Cornell, just not as dean for
a few years, and then when he came to Oxford.
My sources have said that Oxford was well aware of
the fact that this had happened at Cornell, and they
went ahead with the hiring Anyway.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Dutta did not respond to Bloomberg's request for Karmet Catherine.
The way Oxford University investigated and handled Judah's case, how
similar is that to the way that they've handled other
cases like this.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So I think one of the biggest problems, both at
Oxford and in other universities is people being accused of misconduct.
They're potentially being an investigation of some description, and the
person then leaving that job, and it all happening behind
(07:12):
closed doors without any kind of disclosure or warning or
any sort of way in which potentially a university and
institution could try to ensure that that person maybe doesn't
go somewhere else where. Clearly the risk is run that
(07:32):
they may do it again. It seems to happen time
and time again. Another person in our reporting was a
really really prestigious professor at Oxford for a long period
of time. His name is Miles Houston. He was a
professor of social psychology. He's this really really famous person
(07:53):
in his field. We've spoken to twenty women who had
real problem with him over quite a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
What did women tell you about Houston's behavior and how
it affected them?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So he ran a psychology lab and women and male
students both felt incredibly privileged to work with him. Yet
some of those women found that it was not the
kind of experience they were hoping for or expecting. Miles
Houston has behaved in a sexually harassing way to multiple
(08:34):
women over many years. According to our reporting, some of
these women described feeling flattered and overwhelmed by the tension,
not quite knowing what to do given the extreme power
and balance between them. He would give gifts to women
that they felt were intended to make them feel grateful
(08:55):
towards him. If they said to him that he had
behaved in a way that men made them feel uncomfortable,
he might use this phraseology, have I been a bad boy?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
What happened when women initially raise their concerns? How did
the university respond?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So in the case of Miles Houston, he was at
Oxford for eighteen years, so it's a story that sort
of evolved over a long time, and of course, you know,
so did society in that time. There's women who've told
us about trying to raise his behavior with others. One
woman in particular told us about trying to talk to
a harassment advisor at the university, but her recollection was
(09:35):
that this harassment advisor was more worried about the potential
fallout for the university. Eventually, in twenty seventeen, a woman
did decide she could bring a formal complaint against him,
and that really was the point at which things changed
and there was an investigation. We don't know exactly what
(09:57):
the outcome was, but we do know that Miles Houston
left to Oxford University in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And what do we know about how Houston has responded
to the university investigations and the concerns raised about his behavior.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So we have tried to ask him and he has
not replied. I've been told by sources that he described
retiring at the time from Oxford in twenty nineteen. He
has done other things in public life since then, including
now working for this Indian university. He remains a fellow
(10:34):
of the British Academy, which is a very prestigious institution
in UK society. But we haven't heard anything, certainly in
the public domain from him that reflects what he may
or may not think about these allegations.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I'm wondering, more broadly, how has Oxford's leadership responded to
allegations of harassment, bullying, sexual misconduct in their home and
what's the pattern that's emerged across all of these cases.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
For you, it has been different in different cases. We
have reported in our story on two investigations where two
men left Oxford, and the women involved in those cases
felt the outcomes were significant victories. But we have also
heard on multiple occasions about women who felt Oxford has
not done a good job in pursuing their complaints. One
(11:25):
woman described it as being like a deliberate chaos machine
where the people involved never really intended to help.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
In response to Catherine's detailed questions, Oxford said it couldn't
comment on individual cases, but provided a statement.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
It's said directly through a spokesperson. Sexual harassment has no
place at Oxford. Our sympathies and thoughts are with anyone
who has experienced harassment or misconduct. We strive to ensure
that Oxford is always a safe place for all students
and staff. We take concern and seriously applying robust procedures.
(12:03):
Support for those affected is a priority, and we take
precautionary and or disciplinary action where justified. And then it
talked about a new approach. It's brought in that they
say sets out our approach, support and training. We encourage
anyone who has a concern to raise it.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
What have the last inconsequences been for women who have
experienced harassment at Oxford, and for women who have reported
harassment at Oxford.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Some people who've been through even some of these recent
investigations have said they have been very pleased with the
way people have dealt with their complaints. But the lasting
effect really is women who have been sexually assorted or
harassed or bullied, and then on top of that, who
(12:53):
have gone through processes that on the whole they have
felt to be re traumatizing, upsetting. People describe feeling that
they have post traumatic stress disorder. There are women who
have left the university. There are women who are sort
of now in limbo because they can't go back to
(13:14):
their studies necessarily, they can't move forward, and yet they're
alleged harasses have got on fine.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So why has it been so challenging to get Oxford
to hold people accountable after concerns are raised? That's next.
Bloomberg's Catherine Griffiths has been investigating how Oxford University responds
(13:46):
to allegations of misconduct, and she's uncovered a number of
reasons why one of the UK's leading universities has lagged
behind its peers. Part of it, she says, is structural.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So Oxford University is made up of more than forty
different colleges, and so if you're a student, you might
study at one particular college or another particular college, and
so if you are harrassed or assorted as a student,
you have to take that complaint in most cases to
(14:20):
your college rather than the central university. And that has
created lots and lots of problems for women who've tried
to hold their harassers to account. That's because these colleges
are their own individual legal entities. There are information sharing
arrangements in place, but in practice people say it doesn't
(14:42):
seem to happen that way, and it creates a complicated,
fragmented system.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Catherine says. Another challenge is cultural.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
So Oxford is a nine hundred odd year old institution.
People love the history and the traditions, the special class,
those people where to do exams. There's all sorts of
things which make Oxford Oxford, but certainly linked to that
are quite negative things. And those include a university that
(15:15):
can in some ways be unwilling to make changes that
other places, other parts of society, other universities maybe think
are more appropriate and moving with the times. Now, Oxford
would probably dispute that, and of course it is at
the cutting edge in many, many different ways. But it
(15:36):
is a university where the vast majority of senior professors
are men. It also has a higher number than at
some of its peers of particularly famous male professors who
bring in lots and lots of grant funding. So Oxford
very explicitly has said to us that it rejects any
(15:58):
kind of suggestion that it puts people's reputation above other
people's safety. But the experiences of people who have spoken
to us is certainly their feeling is that the reputation
of some of their alleged harassers has played into the
way Oxford has dealt with this.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
In certain cases that surface during Catherine's reporting process, the
way Oxford leadership responded also contributed to a chilling effect.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So we spoke to a young woman who was studying
for a PhD at Balliol College, and she has described
to us being sexually assaulted by a male student at
Bailliol College. She made a formal complaint about it, and
then she says the college dealt with the matter in
an incredibly unsupportive and in her view, unfair way. After that,
(16:55):
she talked to a news organization about what had happened
to her because she felt really upset and frustrated in
the light of that. Helen Gosch, who is the head
of Balliol College, she's a fairly well known person in
UK public life. She's received a damehood. She called a
meeting for students at which she challenged the young woman
(17:17):
about her account of what had happened, and leaflets were
printed out the young woman has told us, which had
some details about her case on them, including some private
information such as when the alleged sexual assault had taken place.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Following a student backlash, Balliol appointed an external investigator who
upheld some of the women's complaints. Balliol College told Bloomberg
in a statement that it takes its responsibilities seriously to
address and prevent harassment and has a rigorous set of
policies and procedures in place. It said it implemented all
the recommendations that were made in two independent reports it
(17:55):
commissioned following a harassment complaint by a student. So, after
doing all this reporting, what stands out about Oxford's process
for handling these types of issues when compared to the
measures and processes that other UK universities have.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So Oxford has changed its measures in various ways over
the years, and in September even this year has introduced
a new policy for students which is clearer and easier
to use for people who want to bring sexual harassment
non academic misconduct complaints. And that seemed to be a
(18:33):
broadly positive thing. But at the same time, there are
ways in which the university probably is still quite out
of step with other universities, and they may have policies,
but it's really how those policies are implemented and how
when people come forward in highly vulnerable states, how the
(18:53):
university actually deals with those people.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
And Catherine's sources say there's more the university could do.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
The reality is it's actually quite difficult for Oxford, any university,
any employer, to open the doors and give full disclosure
on an investigation, how it's going, what might happen to
a person who against whom discipline and reaction may be taken.
That said, I think it comes back to this point
(19:22):
about Oxford being a leader, and really people have told
us that it should be a leader in this field too.
It really needs to send the message to some of
these senior men at the university that this kind of
behavior is completely and utterly unacceptable. They need to make
it clear that they are not going to tolerate it.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
On Thursday, in response to Catherine's investigation, the Member of
Parliament for Oxford Western Abingdon Leila Moran, said she would
be following up with university leadership to understand what more
they can do to address this issue. This is the
(20:06):
Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. The show
was hosted by Me, David Gera and Wan Ha. The
show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison Dengate,
Patti hirsh Rachel Lewis, Krisky, Naomi Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson,
Naomi Shaven, Alex Hugiura, Julia Weaver, Yanyong and Taka Yasuzawa.
(20:29):
To get more from the Big Take and unlimited access
to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at Bloomberg
dot Com Slash Podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be
back on Monday.
Hosts And Creators
Sarah Holder
Saleha Mohsin
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