Meet the Faculty of Natural Sciences Consuls: who are they and what do they do?

The FoNS College Consuls: Professors Martin McCall and Stephen Warren

College Consuls are academic staff who help to ensure integrity and honesty in all academic matters, so what does their role actually involve?

I caught up with current Faculty of Natural Sciences Consuls, Professors Martin McCall and Stephen Warren, to find out more about how their activities support and impact FoNS staff and students. 

Hello both! How long have you been at Imperial, and how long have you been a Consul?

Martin: I joined Imperial as a temporary lecturer in 1987 so I’ve been here nearly thirty-four years! I’ve been a Consul for almost one year.

Stephen: I came here as a lecturer in 1993 and have been a Consul for nearly two years. It’s slightly peculiar that we’re both in Physics. You don’t seem to get many people putting themselves forward for Consul, and I find this a bit of a mystery because it’s such an interesting role. Perhaps some people think that because it’s a fifty percent job role it’ll detract from or interrupt their career. Martin and I are keen to address some of the misconceptions about the position, as we could certainly do with more people who are interested in putting themselves forward for Consul.

Martin: As with so many other areas, increasing representation among academic Consuls is very important.

How does the Consul position fit into your academic role and why did it appeal to you?

Martin: I’d reached a point in my career where it seemed appropriate. I’d established my research group and Consul was an opportunity for me to learn about the College from a much broader position. Seeing the breadth of activity and expertise across Imperial, and the quality of the people here in so many different areas, has been incredibly impressive. To be able to be a part of these conversations, and even influence outcomes, can be very satisfying. Time-wise, our fifty percent allocation to the Consul role is reflected at departmental level by how much teaching we’re expected to do over the three-year term.

Stephen: You have to deal with a lot of cases that involve justice in one way or another – things like disciplinary proceedings, grievances, appeals – and it’s very rewarding when you feel that you’re doing something good. It’s a fascinating role too – from academic promotions and appointments right across the College, in fields very different from our own, to sitting on panels for serious cases that have a huge influence on a person’s future. We’re there to maintain standards, to ensure that the quality of appointments is satisfactory, that the rules are followed and that everybody’s treated fairly. Most people don’t want to treat people unfairly by any means, but there can be conflicts of interest, for example when comparing an internal and an external candidate, and it’s useful to have somebody independent sitting on the panel to perhaps point out if somebody’s not thinking straight about one issue or another.

Consuls are elected by their academic peers. How do you maintain independence from senior management and challenge inequalities that you encounter? How do you challenge your own blind spots?

Stephen: To be completely independent, and to be able to speak out when you think that something isn’t right, is an essential part of our role. People applying for the role need to be motivated by that. Consuls across College all get together once a week for an hour to talk about current topics and share concerns. It’s quite amazing how, when different perspectives are shared, the debate develops. It’s a very good atmosphere, a very collegiate group of people.

Martin: The Consuls’ weekly meetings have a cross-moderating effect as well. There we have the opportunity to discuss cases – with appropriate anonymity – check ourselves and support each other.

Stephen: I’ve certainly had my opinions moderated in that forum, resulting in a better outcome, so it does work very well.

Martin: In terms of the global role, it was well-expressed in our open letter to the College when the Consuls reflected that they act as “the conscience of the College”, so on issues that arise from time to time we can speak out in an independent way.

So you’ve encountered situations where your perspectives have been challenged in a positive way – what have you learned in the role so far?

Martin: I’ve been surprised at the diversity of opinions across College on many different issues. I perhaps started the role assuming that most people went about their work relatively contentedly. As a result of being a Consul I’ve realised there are a lot of different issues that need to be addressed to ensure that our staff and students have the procedures, resources and positive environment they need in order to enjoy their work and do it well. Instances of unfairness do crop up, and in some cases they need to be called out and addressed. It’s an opportunity to do your best to be objective and bring your experience to situations to try and improve them.

Stephen: I’ve certainly learned how to do the role better as time has progressed. I’ve benefitted from Consuls who’ve been in the role longer, seeing how they operate and passing on their experience. All the senior management are present at weekly Heads of Department (HoD) lunches, and it’s been very interesting to learn how to interact with them effectively in this space: how to best raise topics such that your point of view gets put across in a constructive way, especially if you disagree with someone.

Another thing you get from this role is an overview of what goes on across College. You’ll be required to interact with a head of department on an appointment in the Faculty of Medicine or Engineering, for example – areas I knew very little about before. I’m very glad that I now have that perspective. As a result I've got a much better appreciation for what the College is trying to do as an interdisciplinary institution, working towards solutions that tackle important real-world applied problems. As an astronomer I don’t do much of that in my research. I can see what the strengths of Imperial are and why it’s good to emphasise and encourage that interdisciplinarity. All that’s just a bonus of being a Consul, but you feel you contribute to that a bit as well. We’ve been contributing to the discussion on the appointment of the new President, for example, and I feel that I can do that better now that I’ve got a much better perspective of everything that’s going on in the College.

How do you think the College can improve transparency and the governance structure?

Stephen: The structure could be accused of being pretty arcane – there are an enormous number of panels that seem to contain different combinations of the same people. It can sometimes be unclear how all these bodies hang together. I think it could be simplified, and I believe the Provost is interested in doing that. It’s been built up a bit like a city without a grand plan – more like London than Haussmann's renovation of Paris! I guess it means you end up with a structure which isn’t always optimal, so I think it would be a good idea to review it.

Martin: We’re also aware of the need to keep working to improve communication across College, and really strong communication skills are a key criteria for the new presidential candidate.

Stephen: Alice introduced the HoDs lunches and I think they’ve been a huge success. It’s up to the HoDs to then feed down from that, and they do that via the heads of the different groups and teams within their departments. Communication is always a challenge in a huge organisation like Imperial. I think it has improved, and there’s a constant message that it should be improved further.

How do you support staff across FoNS and what kind of advice can you provide?

Stephen: We can intervene and speak truth to power if need be, perhaps calling senior management out if they aren’t getting something right. We’re equipped to do that partly because we’re able to pick things up from our day-to-day interactions in our departments, and partly through people contacting us directly.

Martin: Yes, I get quite a lot of unsolicited approaches. It’s having that collective ear to the ground, to tap into really important academic opinion. Or it might be that an individual has an issue that I can give a perspective on that’s perhaps outside of their immediate line management, even if I can’t necessarily solve it.

Stephen: I don’t think this avenue is used enough actually – I’m not sure that people are fully aware that they can contact the Consuls, that we’re available and want to help. I’d be very happy for people to contact me more with their concerns.

How do Consuls ensure the quality of the education and support offered to students? Has this developed over the course of the pandemic?

Martin: Aside from the pandemic, one of our roles is to sit on various education committees. When courses are being revised we can bring in perspectives from outside the department and assess whether changes are academically appropriate and consistent with other practices across College. The pandemic has obviously brought with it a lot of educational challenges.

Stephen: Some College committees don’t have a student representative, so you sometimes find yourself providing a perspective on behalf of the students on matters that affect them. The way lockdowns have impacted university life has made things incredibly challenging for students, and we need to think very carefully about how we proceed with education in the future. For example, it was a huge effort for our staff to produce teaching materials during the pandemic – to record the lectures was much harder work than delivering them face-to-face. So a perspective from lecturers might be that we continue to use these materials even when things return to “normal”. But that perspective isn’t necessarily seeing things from the students’ experience. On matters like this, as Consul you can speak up. Students really want in-person lectures, and we should strive as much as possible to provide that, even though it might be easier for us to give the recordings out again.

Martin: Stephen and I both went to lunch with first year Physics students recently, who’ve only had the pandemic experience at College. These informal picnics were very enjoyable, and also a brilliant opportunity for us to listen to student opinions on these matters. If we don’t really strive to engage with students in this way we risk missing the mark and not providing them with the experience and quality they expect and deserve.

Stephen: The picnics were such a good idea – we weren’t there because we’re Consuls, we were there because we’re lecturers, but that first-hand experience then informs our Consul work, and feeds into our interactions with senior leadership in a different context.

What makes a good Consul?

Stephen: Experience is extremely important. You need to have the big picture and understand people well. You need to be collegiate. You need to be objective and fair, and sometimes you need to be brave because you need to make a decision which will make you unpopular with someone or a group of people. In difficult matters like grievances you need to have empathy to draw out fully and fairly the different perspectives.

Martin: And you need a lot of energy! To actually get to the bottom of what’s gone on so that you can make an informed judgement on disciplinary matters and appeals and so forth. This requires quite a lot of investigation sometimes. You almost have to bring your research brain to the table, to unpick documentation to try and understand what the issues are. That can be challenging.

Stephen: Sexual harassment and violence cases can be extremely serious for the people involved, and scientific integrity cases – somebody can lose their job. You have to make decisions that can have a big effect on people and you’ve got to get it right.

So you’re drawing on many different skills to do with the more philosophical dimensions of humans at a fundamental level?

Martin: Yes, analysing interactions and the functioning of the university from a behavioural aspect, and not just from the research and education side of things.

Stephen: These are lessons which I’ve learnt only relatively recently. I now much more fully appreciate why the understanding of human psychology is so important.

How do Consuls ensure that appointments and promotions processes are carried out fairly? Why do you think the role is important?

Martin: As Consuls we sign off to confirm that a person is appointable and that the process has been fair. In principle a Consul can veto an appointment.

Stephen: Difficult issues on that front don’t arise too often – on the whole people do have integrity and want to do things properly. The simple fact of the Consul’s presence on a panel is important. Everyone knows that they have to act fairly and appropriately because the Consul is judging that. If you see something that makes you think a process is not being followed correctly, as Consul you can highlight that to the panel with just a small comment without causing a confrontation. Very occasionally you’ll need to be explicit and say, look this isn’t right, I won’t sign things off unless you do this differently.

Martin: Yes, people respect your opinion as Consul, and so even just a small nudge at a meeting can make a difference.

Stephen: Appointment panels value an independent perspective. The panel may be familiar with most of the candidates who apply for a lectureship, and they’re seeing the process from their perspective as experts in that field. A Consul is an outsider to some extent – it’s really fascinating the things you have to learn about in departments across Imperial, on so many different topics.

Find out more

Visit Imperial’s website to learn more about its governance structure and the work of the College Consuls.