“A university that suspended a professor on the basis of ‘extremely weak’ allegations of racism has been forced to reinstate him by the Court of Appeal. Robert Watson, professor of financial management at Durham Business School, was suspended in December 2007 following accusations that he had harassed staff and made racist comments. Professor Watson said he had simply been trying to raise concerns about Tony Antoniou, former dean of Durham Business School, whose PhD was found to contain plagiarism and who was sacked from his post earlier this year. Following what are claimed to have been complaints about Professor Watson’s behaviour, Durham took the decision to investigate the validity of Professor Watson’s own PhD, contacting libraries and consulting public databases …” (more)
[Rebecca Attwood, Times Higher Education, 27 November]