…because, if they did, they would be feeling pretty silly now.
We have recently received a response to a FOIA request to Teesside University, which included some interesting information about Visiting Professor Patrick Holford’s time at the University. Teesside’s Case for Patrick Holford as a Visiting Professor [PDF] referred to Food for the Brain funding a £12,500/year PhD bursary – something that would have cost a good £37,500. However, when Teesside were asked about any Holford-related income, they responded that:
No income has been received by the University from Mr Holford, Biocare, the Brain Bio Centre or Food for the Brain. Expenses have been paid by Food for the Brain for attendance by University staff in connection with a Schools project.
The total amount of money coming into Teesside from all these sources was therefore…wait for it…£592.03. Better than a slap in the face – sure – but nowhere near £37,500.
If other institutions are considering offering Holford a post, we would hope that they are also doing so for academic rather than financial reasons. As Teesside have found, there is a significant reputational cost associated with offering Holford an academic title – but the financial rewards may be much, much less than anticipated.
Hmmm, did Mr Holford renege on any financial deal, I wonder? £592.03 seems a little cheap to be selling Visiting Professorships. I could almost afford one at that price.
I know that you’ve covered the fact that no search committee was involved. It looks like a Teesside academic put together a case for support and a conferment committee agreed but Teesside should be looking at whoever put together the case and gave them such over-optimistic financial or other forecasts.
Of course, there was also mention of the work Holford was going to do at Teesside. More on that another day, though.
Is this really the entire case for Holford being offered a Visiting Professorship? Quite apart from whoever put it together having a pretty shaky grasp of English (in the first para alone ‘affects’ instead of ‘effects’ while ‘an international reputation in terms of nutrition and mental health’ is both clumsy and obscure), it’s remarkably thin. There’s also a clear statement that £12,500 pa is coming: doesn’t this means that Teesside professorships are for sale? I suppose it’s a tribute to Holford’s business acumen that he managed to get a £11,907.93 discount.
It is remarkably dispiriting, isn’t it? As some quotation on Language Log said, on a different topic and in a different context: it is a classic example of a “self-invented expert engaged in relentless self-promotion“.
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