[4][5][6][7] Layzell was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and technology.
Royal Holloway's student magazine Orbital quoted him as claiming in an open staff meeting of 29 November 2017[9] that “there are certain protected groups where there is a natural tendency to not have a go and put themselves in for promotion – sometimes that’s gender, sometimes it’s the BAME group”.
[10] The magazine also states that Layzell hinted during the meeting that "women were better suited to teaching than research".
[11] He was also the centre of criticism regarding Royal Holloway's treatment of academics who underwent industrial action in 2018.
[12] The occupation ended when Layzell released an apology[13] for the College's treatment of striking staff, which had caused the Royal Holloway branch of the UCU to refer to it as "the UK's most hard-line university employer".