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'Under the veil of investigative journalism'

The suspended vice chancellor George Holmes

An editor's note by Joshi

When my colleague Mollie Simpson started reporting on the strange goings on at the University of Greater Manchester early this year, she was met with a wall of denial.

Via a "media relations consultant" who used to be the editor of a local newspaper, the university hit back. At times, they went further than denials and suggested that our reporting was baseless, or even dishonest. University statements sent to us by the media relations consultant called the allegations Mollie had surfaced "potentially vexatious and increasingly extraordinary assertions" which we had obtained "primarily it appears from hearsay".

That wasn't all. The statement – dripping with the arrogance and condescension of an organisation that isn't used to scrutiny — said that “under the veil of investigative journalism” we had “threatened to make public unsubstantiated, potentially damaging, claims by former staff members". By doing our job and reporting very serious concerns of staff, the university said we were actually robbing those staff of the chance to address their concerns through the appropriate official procedures. And then the kicker: "...If indeed there are any which constitute legitimate issues."

I sit a few yards away from Mollie in the Mill office, and I remember the fury I felt when she read out that statement. Three months later, however, things look rather different.

Coverage of the story in the national press this week.

This week, the university suspended its vice chancellor of 20 years, George Holmes, as a result of “serious allegations”, along with the provost and another senior member of staff. Two hours after his suspension, Greater Manchester Police officially confirmed they have an "active investigation" into the university.

The police statement says:

"This follows a review of allegations published in The Mill, and subsequent PwC report commissioned by the university’s Fraud Response Panel.”

You might remember that our investigation surfaced contracts and documents showing that senior executives at the university tried to divert hundreds of thousands in tuition fees – via a university recruitment partner in Casablanca – into a private company owned by one of them, a man called Joseph Wheeler. Mollie's reporting suggested that Holmes had been told about this deal, and despite several attempts, we could not get the university to explain why he allowed it to proceed. We also showed that the university was paying millions of pounds to Wheeler's tiny marketing company, despite Wheeler having no obvious background in higher education.

Mollie started this whole thing herself, by gaining the trust of key staff at the university and meticulously corroborating their claims. Initially, no one else in the media covered what was going on, despite the incredibly serious things we had uncovered, which are highly unusual at a public university in the UK. But within hours of Tuesday's news, the story was running on the BBC, The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, Times Higher Education and the Manchester Evening News.

Who knows what will happen next, but bravo to Mollie and the whole Mill team. After Jack Dulhanty and Abi Whistance had investigations long listed for Private Eye's Paul Foot award this month, this is another Mill Media reporter in her twenties who is achieving absolutely remarkable things. I feel like buying them all t-shirts emblazoned with 'Under the veil of investigative journalism' on the front.

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