Podcast

Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University, Professor Malcolm Press CBE, joins the podcast this week. He shares insights into his commitment to his staff and students and the commitment Manchester Met has to its civic setting in a major city in the UK. He shares lessons from a 200 year history of an institution that is pioneering degree apprenticeships and design education among other things and illustrates the importance of authenticity and trusting teams in exercising effective leadership.

CEO of TEDI London Professor Judy Raper joins the podcast to describe how an alliance of research power houses Arizona State University, UNSW and Kings College are reconceiving design and engineering education in a start up in London.

CEO of Universities Australia, Catriona Jackson joins the podcast in the aftermath of the ministerial non-approval of 6 ARC Discovery grants, the tightrope walking around foreign interference and research partnerships, and as campuses reopen with staff and students, particularly women, having some reluctance of what they are returning to.

Vice Chancellor of Griffith University Professor Carolyn Evans reflects on how having a new strategy coming into 2020 served her well in providing a true north to navigate the challenges of the disruptions of a pandemic. And as the IRU reflect on their distinctiveness as a group of universities, she reflects on how innovation has been made the necessity of the hour, and a means of guiding engaged staff in our universities through the cultural challenges of the current period, to serve a critically important broader community purpose.

Vice Chancellor of Massey University and Chair of Universities New Zealand Professor Jan Thomas outlines the issues being faced in the different setting and context of NZ compared to her earlier experience of 5 years leading the University of Southern Queensland.

This episode sees a student join us in orientation week then again in week 12 of her first semester. She shares expectations coming into the course and how these are impacted by her understanding of brand and reputation.

Vice Chancellor of Essex University in the UK, Anthony Forster is our first international VC guest. He describes the values that drive how his university seeks to differentiate and what made it UK University of the Year in 2018. He outlines the quite different issues of government funding for research and flow of international students, particularly from India, that UK universities are facing compared to those in Australia.

Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia Professor David Lloyd shares insights from running the first staff jam across his whole university in getting staff engagement to a strategy. And repeating it again 4 years later. He outlines how one unforeseen idea cost him $50m. He outlines the novel approach of leaving staff to decide how academic units should be organized only making the proviso it should be based on the products they offer students. And he describes a global partnership for skill development with a global big 4 consultancy from Adelaide. His message is of a philosophy of leadership and a university strategy, based on digital routes to enterprise.