"Make sure that your files do not contain anything you would be unhappy or embarrassed to have to show to the individual to whom it relates," a Cambridge University memo advises, which shows that managers there are being pro-active in preparation for a more open and accountable future. Last week, European Union member states were compelled to implement the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive, which allows further access for individuals to personal data held on computers and some manual filing systems. Although the United Kingdom missed the European deadline it is working towards implementation. Universities are clearly busy acquainting themselves with and preparing for the impact of the new legislation.
As well as advising departmental heads to remove any unhappy and embarrassing comments, the memo to them from Cambridge University managers also advised staff to "review all records currently held within your faculty or department that relate to either former or current staff and students. Critically review your local policies on record retention. Adopt as best practice a system which means that no records are held/stored unless absolutely necessary." And "consider what arrangements you will need to put in place to ensure that consent is gained from the subject for any of his/her data that you do hold".
The memo also warns: "You should also be aware that a possible future Freedom of Information Act is likely to extend even further the rights of individuals to access material that is related to them and/or plays a part in decisions that affect their lives."
Blackballed professor
One whistleblower who should perhaps see his personal files is John Pickering. Professor Pickering was made redundant as deputy vice-chancellor of Portsmouth University in 1994 after helping to draw the public's attention to vice-chancellor Neil Merritt's now notorious expenses fiddling.
Although the National Audit Office acknowledged the link between the investigation into the vice-chancellor and Professor Pickering's departure from Portsmouth, Professor Pickering has had trouble finding work ever since.
Posts for which he has been rejected without interview include: principal of West Sussex Institute of Higher Education; vice-principal of King Alfred's College, Winchester; vice-chancellor of the University of Portsmouth (rejected twice); dean of business school at the University of Bournemouth; a chair in retail management at the University of Surrey; dean of the Bristol business school at the University of the West of England; principal of Southampton Institute; and a chair in business studies at the London Business School.
Others where he was at least shortlisted include: vice-chancellor of the University of Westminster; director of research at Southampton Institute's business school; and principal at Christchurch College, Canterbury. Of course, it could all just be a coincidence.
A taste for tribunals
More news on Geoff Wheen, whose one-man campaign to keep university personnel managers on their toes was revealed in Whistleblowers last month.
After being turned down for a senior lectureship at the University of Central England's school of property and construction, Mr Wheen took the university to an industrial tribunal, alleging both racial and sexual discrimination. He lost. During the proceedings it emerged that he had taken out no fewer than 15 other unsuccessful industrial tribunal applications in the previous 18 months, including unsuccessful claims against Oxford Brookes University and the University of Northumbria. Undeterred, he is now in dispute with Glasgow Caledonian University. His hobby as a litigant began, it seems, in the early 1980s, when he quit Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moore's) and claimed "constructive dismissal". He was unsuccessful then too.
Contact Phil Baty on 0171 782 3298 or email him on pbaty@thes.co.uk