UNIVERSITY staff have called for their vice chancellor to withdraw from an inspirational leader competition as many feel “disillusioned” with how the institution is being run.

A total of 76 members of staff have written to Professor Debra Humphris, vice chancellor of the University of Brighton, after she was nominated and shortlisted by an external panel of experts for the competition run by The Guardian newspaper.

The staff said they – the people who were meant to be inspired – had never been consulted either about the nomination or the shortlisting process.

The letter states: “We write to you with the urgent suggestion that you withdraw your candidature since this exercise will not simply do damage to your personal reputation but will, more seriously, risk bringing disrepute to the university.

“The purpose for the candidates appears to be self-promotion and career enhancement and the mechanism is self-nomination for the award, rendering it comparable to a form of vanity publishing.

“The selection process makes no reference to those who have been ‘led’, or to those who may have been ‘inspired’, by the candidates from these institutions.

“The evaluation is by competition judges who occupy similar roles to those of all of the candidates.

“The next question is of the gravest importance: if this was an institutional nomination by an appropriate university body (a board or a committee) then what legitimacy does that decision possess?

“There was no consultation with staff about it and no reference to the opinion of students.”

Staff who wrote to Professor Humphris cited some of the main reasons for their objection to her being nominated, which included the closure of the Hastings campus and the centralisation of many university processes and increased bureaucracy.

They also cited the escalating workloads at a time of declining real incomes, student fees and hardship, and the “dramatic increases” in the pay of senior managers.

The authors said the competition is of “little academic standing” and that many were “disillusioned” with the leadership at the university, if not demoralised by it.

In a reply from the university registrar Stephen Dudderidge on behalf of the vice chancellor, the staff who wrote the letter were told Professor Humphris would not be withdrawing from the competition.

A spokesman for the university said: “The nomination of our vice-chancellor by an external panel of experts for this prestigious award is an honour for the whole university and has been widely welcomed as such.

"The nomination recognises our vice-chancellor’s many achievements across her entire career, as evidenced by her recent election as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and the nomination process did not involve the university in any way.

"The University of Brighton is not alone in facing some difficult challenges arising from uncertainty over the future funding of Higher Education, the impact of Brexit on staff and student recruitment and research partnerships and increasingly competitive market for student recruitment.

"Despite this the University, under the leadership of our vice-chancellor, continues to collectively focus on delivering an excellent student experience and building on its reputation for high-quality teaching, research and enterprise and community engagement."