Senior employee expresses concern at use of ‘gagging orders’ at NI universities

A senior university employee says the “reluctance” of NI’s two universities to be transparent about how it uses legal gagging orders on students and staff is “very troubling”.
NDAs are legal contracts that were originally designed to protect commercial secrets.NDAs are legal contracts that were originally designed to protect commercial secrets.
NDAs are legal contracts that were originally designed to protect commercial secrets.

Investigations of universities in GB found they are using Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or ‘gagging’ contracts to stop students going public with complaints of sexual assault, bullying and poor teaching. NDAs are legal contracts that were originally designed to protect commercial secrets.

The BBC recently found that 300 students in GB have signed NDAs since 2016 after making complaints, with related payouts ranging totalling than £1.3m.

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The News Letter asked Ulster University (UU) and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) how many NDAs they had used in the past three years and the reason for each .

QUB said it had eight staff sign NDAs from 2017-2018 and two students from 2016-19. It declined to give any reasons and said it could not yet give figures for last year due to Coronavirus pandemic.

Asked what it typically uses NDAs for, QUB replied: “Universities are hubs of research and innovation that meet major societal challenges and drive economic growth. Non-disclosure agreements are widely used across the Higher Education sector to protect information about research, including to protect commercial interests and intellectual property.”

Disclosure of information relating to agreements would negatively impact on the University’s ability to negotiate settlements and would risk identifying individuals, it said. QUB takes the wellbeing of staff very seriously and consequently has robust policies and codes of conduct in place to ensure a positive working environment, it added.

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Ulster University declined to give any information on the number of NDAs it used.

“Ulster University considers the use of non-disclosure agreements appropriate in circumstances including where there is a requirement to retain and protect the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information,” it responded.

“Negotiated settlements of this kind are mutually confidential for both parties and as these are in low numbers in a relatively small local market, provision of amounts may identify individuals or personal information, which would breach our confidentiality obligations.”

A senior NI university employee, who asked not to be identified, said there were perceptions about “bullying and cronyism” in some NI departments.

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“I find the two universities’ reluctance to be transparent about their NDA records is very troubling,” she said. “Given the fact that internal well-being surveys in some university departments report perceptions of a culture of bullying and cronyism, it is difficult to take their explanation seriously. The irony is that universities who ought to be dedicated to revealing social and scientific ‘truths’ will not be lost on staff who have experienced difficulties with management.”

Jo Grady, general secretary for the lecturers’s union, The University College Union, said the way that some UK universities deal with Freedom of Information requests about NDAs was “not acceptable”.

“Where universities do use a non-disclosure agreement it should be beneficial to both parties and not enforced so the university abdicates responsibility to deal with any issues that have arisen,” she said. “Robust action to tackle problems is always welcome, but it is much better if institutions invest in creating a healthy culture in the first place.”

The National Union of Students noted that the only data released for NI confirmed that two QUB students had signed NDAs and that QUB had not released any more specifics about the cases. There were clearly disputes between the university and two students but that’s all we know, the NUS said.

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“In terms of NDAs in general we do know that they have been used by various institutions over the years to close disputes between education bodies and students, and some universities within the UK have used NDAs when allegations of bullying and harassment have been made.”

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