{"id":13245,"date":"2024-10-04T08:38:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T08:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/surprise-and-concern-at-ex-mps-new-professor-role\/"},"modified":"2024-10-04T08:38:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T08:38:18","slug":"surprise-and-concern-at-ex-mps-new-professor-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/surprise-and-concern-at-ex-mps-new-professor-role\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Surprise and concern\u2019 at ex-MP\u2019s new professor role"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"UlsterUlster University<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Former Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry, right, with former Stormont special adviser Jodie Carson<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A university trade union has said it is “surprised and concerned” that a former Alliance Party MP was given a professorship outside of normal recruitment processes.<\/p>\n

Stephen Farry and Jodie Carson, a former Stormont special adviser, have been appointed by Ulster University (UU) to lead a new “strategic policy unit”.<\/p>\n

The University and College Union (UCU) has raised questions, saying that recruitment processes should “uphold equality, transparency and accountability”.<\/p>\n

UU said there was a “compelling justification” in this case as to why a publicly advertised recruitment was “not appropriate”.<\/p>\n

It said the pair’s “combined academic and public policy expertise” create a “significant strategic benefit for the university”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Crucial’ equality, transparency and accountability’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Dr Farry announced last month his resignation as Alliance deputy leader<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It followed him losing his seat as MP for North Down in July’s general election.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, UU announced he and Dr Carson, who until recently was a special adviser to Alliance minister Andrew Muir, would co-lead a new strategic policy unit.<\/p>\n

It said they had been appointed as professors of strategic policy and co-directors of the new unit, which will offer “influential strategic policy analysis in a public-facing space”.<\/p>\n

The university declined to disclose their salaries or pay bands.<\/p>\n

The median salary for a professor is about \u00a380,000, according to an analysis of figures from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement UU said the pair were appointed through its “exceptional talent pool” process, which has been used in fewer than 10 appointments in the past decade.<\/p>\n

UCU’s Ulster University branch said it was “surprised and concerned” over the jobs being assigned without public advertisement.<\/p>\n

Dr Linda Moore, president of the UCU Ulster branch, said: “While we look forward to meeting with Dr Farry and Dr Carson to hear about their roles, it is crucial that university processes uphold equality, transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n

“We will be asking questions of the university about the costs associated with the appointments, and the reason for the apparent deviation from normal recruitment processes.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Parachuted into plum jobs’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister said the pair have been “parachuted into plum jobs” in a process which “defies every component of conventional recruitment”.<\/p>\n

“Due process has been shamelessly jettisoned,” the North Antrim MP added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Wide advertisement recommended <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The Equality Commission said it recommends that “as a matter of good practice, employers should advertise all their job vacancies widely”.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman said “failing to advertise job vacancies is not necessarily unlawful but this approach may indicate that the selection process is not promoting equality of opportunity”.<\/p>\n

In a statement, an Ulster University spokeswoman said there was a “compelling justification as to why conventional recruitment is not appropriate”.<\/p>\n

She said: “Following an initial review of a proposal for how Dr Farry and Dr Carson might contribute to a new strategic policy unit, and after follow-on exploratory conversations and a robust assessment relative to strategic need, they were appointed through the established university’s Exceptional Talent Pool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The Exceptional Talent Pool is a university recruitment mechanism that is employed in a very small number of cases, where the potential exists to recruit particular specialists, where there is compelling justification as to why conventional recruitment is not appropriate and where there is a clear and significant strategic benefit for the university – in this case for their combined academic and public policy expertise.<\/p>\n

“This established Exceptional Talent Pool process runs very occasionally, and in parallel with, competitive recruitment in line with relevant legislation and codes of practice – the vast majority of vacancies will be filled in this way.”<\/p>\n

Dr Farry and Dr Carson were also approached for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Ulster University Former Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry, right, with former Stormont special adviser Jodie Carson A university trade union has said it is “surprised and concerned” that a former Alliance Party MP was given a professorship outside of normal recruitment processes. Stephen Farry and Jodie Carson, a former Stormont special adviser, have been appointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[4651,5849,5850,270,803],"class_list":["post-13245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-n-ireland","tag-concern","tag-exmps","tag-professor","tag-role","tag-surprise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13247,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13245\/revisions\/13247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}