Bartlett director Bob Sheil has stepped down in response to yesterday’s report highlighting bullying, racism and sexual misconduct at the London architecture school.
Sheil resigned yesterday ahead of the publication of the results of an independent investigation into allegations of misconduct at the Bartlett School of Architecture, which is part of University College London (UCL).
“Yesterday, prior to the publication of the independent investigation by Howlett Brown, professor Bob Sheil took a personal decision to stand down from his role as director of the Bartlett School of Architecture,” said a spokesperson for UCL.
Toxic culture spanning decades at Bartlett
The report created by legal consultancy Howlett Brown stated that there had been a “toxic learning and teaching culture” spanning decades at the institution, which is rated the UK’s best architecture school according to the QS World Rankings.
Appointed in 2016, Sheil’s second term as director was due to come to an end in September when professor Amy Kulper will take over the role.
Following Sheil’s resignation professor Jacqui Glass was appointed interim director of the school “with immediate effect”.
Yesterday’s report found that there was a toxic culture spanning decades at the school created by the school’s set-up and a small group of staff.
Howlett Brown was appointed by UCL to investigate the Bartlett in October 2021 after former student Eleni Kyriacou first exposed numerous allegations of racism and sexism at the school.
Its damning 120-page report contains the results of interviews, discussions and surveys with more than 300 former students, current students and staff.
“Inexcusable and pernicious underbelly of bullying”
In response to the report, UCL president Michael Spence said that the university was “committed to taking action” as “something has gone terribly wrong” at the school.
“Their testimonies expose an inexcusable and pernicious underbelly of bullying and other unacceptable behaviour that is completely at odds with the values on which UCL was founded,” said Spence.
UCL said it was immediately suspending some staff from student-facing and administrative duties although it was unable to share their pending further internal investigations.
The Bartlett is not the only architecture and design school to face allegations of racism with Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) recently introducing a series of initiatives to address the racism that it said had “pervaded systems and structures” at the school “for decades”.
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