Professor Richardson will fly back from New York for an emergency meeting of Oxford’s ruling council tomorrow PAOxford has dropped its hardline stance on the lecturers’ strike after a sudden U-turn by Louise Richardson, the vice chancellor. In an early morning email to staff, she said that she would reverse the university’s position in support of deep pension cuts and called an emergency meeting of the ruling council tomorrow to ratify the move. Her climbdown, at 8am today, comes less than 24 hours after she blocked an attempt by lecturers to debate and vote on Oxford’s support for the pension cuts. The move came at a meeting of congregation, Oxford’s governing body, where hundreds of academics and alumnae packed into the Sheldonian Theatre to debate the pension dispute, which has led to 14 days of strikes at 65 universities. Professor Richardson encouraged…

Source: The Times March 07, 2018 12:00 UTC