Professor’s court challenge against university upheld

A CHALLENGE by a university professor to the conduct of an investigation by his employer college into allegations that he grabbed a female staff member by the throat, has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

The three-judge court yesterday unanimously rejected University College Cork’s (UCC) appeal against a High Court decision that the disciplinary procedures invoked by it towards Professor Connell Fanning, head of the economics department of UCC, were beyond its powers.

Where a proposed disciplinary action interferes with rights of tenure or conditions of service, Prof Fanning and anyone else appointed prior to the 1997 Universities Act may only be dealt with under pre-1997 statutes, said Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns.