‘He must resign as a matter of urgency’: Panic and porkies from a university in meltdown

There’s something strange going on at the University of Greater Manchester. The story we broke ten days ago was already pretty bizarre: an organisation that has recently rebranded itself from Bolton University has paid more than £8 million over a six year period to a tiny marketing company in Milton Keynes. That company is owned and run by a man called Joseph Wheeler, who staff told us had gained incredible levels of power at the university. 

We revealed a tape of a call in which Wheeler worried about recruiting too many similar-looking African students, who might turn Bolton into a “small Lagos”, a concern he said he was passing on from the university’s vice chancellor. Staff members described Wheeler as a bully who tells jokes about Jews and has no place in a modern workplace, let alone one that – like most universities – receives millions of pounds of public money. 

After our investigation was published, local MPs in Bolton put pressure on the university to explain what was going on, and on Monday morning, the university said Wheeler was leaving “with immediate effect.” On Thursday, the university issued a new statement that could not have been clearer: “The University does not have any ongoing legal relationship with Mr Wheeler.” 

But that’s not true. Our reporting this week suggests that the university has intentionally misled us, and the public. According to several staff members at the university, Wheeler has been continuing his work – discussing ongoing projects and boasting about how his supposed departure on Monday was a ruse to allow things to carry on as normal. “It doesn’t change anything”, Wheeler has told colleagues in the past few days. 

We can reveal that the university has not, in fact, cut ties with Wheeler at all. In fact, it is continuing its contract with his company RSM, of which he owns almost all of the shares. Local MP Phil Brickell has contacted the university in response to our latest reporting, and says the vice chancellor Geroge Holmes needs to be “completely transparent about what is going on”. 

Inside the university, staff have lost confidence in Holmes, who they suspect is shielding Wheeler for some reason. “I think this means he must resign as a matter of urgency,” says one senior staff member. “He must go to cause as little damage to the institution as possible.” 

Why did the University of Greater Manchester seemingly try to cover up Wheeler’s continued involvement when it issued its statement on Monday? And why is it so keen to keep the money flowing to his company RSM? 

Sometimes we have to admit we don’t have all the answers on these kinds of complex stories, and it’s a bit of a Mill tradition to take our readers along on the journey as we try to work things out (often with your help). We might have fuller answers to those questions in the coming days, but there’s plenty to update you on for now. 

That’s our members-only story below. If you’re not yet a member, please join up now to read today’s update and support this kind of investigative work. This is obviously one of those stories where the more sources we can assemble, the better. If you know something that might assist our reporting in the next few days, please get in touch with Mollie.

‘Shaking and stuttering’

Last Thursday – ten days ago now and just hours after we published our first story about this strange saga – the man in charge of the University of Greater Manchester was pale, “shaking and stuttering”. “He looked like someone had passed away. He looked really, really shaken to the core,” one staff member told me. Holmes spent “a long time” standing outside the university’s offices talking with his inner circle.