University Registrars Talking About Stuff: Recent Episodes
Paul Greatrix
A series of podcasts in which two Registrars (or equivalent) talk about higher ed stuff. HE is a wonderful and frightening world and university Registrars have much to say about most of it. The early episodes cover everything from the Warwick Way and teaching & learning matters to crises, challenging environments and portraits before we move into the pandemic, sector responses to it and lessons for the future.
And now for something completely different. Based on an original idea by Jenny Lawrence and Jackie Potter, who came up with it on their way to a meeting of the Heads of Educational Development Group, it is time for the Higher Education Shipping forecast.
With a general synopsis and reports from the major Higher Education and Shipping areas, your full forecast can be heard here.
Drawing its inspiration from the classic 1973 song by the Faces, this episode of the podcast was a live recording at the spring conference of AHUA held at Swansea University in April 2025.
The recording provides an opportunity to hear from two departing/departed AHUA members in conversation discussing their reflections on their long careers in the sector. Featuring Lee Sanders of the University of Birmingham and Paul Greatrix, formerly of the University of Nottingham the focus is very much on those areas where valuable lessons have been learned.
Subjects such as being selective in the battles you pick, the convening power of the registrar, the challenge of complexity and the importance of pragmatism are covered along with issues such as delivery focus versus PhD acquisition and trying to be serious most of the time. The various attributes needed to survive as a registrar are discussed too, drawing on recent surveys of AHUA members and some insightful contributions are provided by the audience.
And without getting too maudlin or self-indulgent they do try to remind everyone that they were the future once but actually things look much better now for the next stage of development of a more diverse and inclusive AHUA.
This is a longer podcast than usual and carries all the features of a live recording. Huge thanks though to Robin Henderson for providing the equipment and Stella, his daughter, for cleaning up the audio as best she could.
For this edition of the podcast I have the great pleasure to talk to Nicola Maina who is the Union Development Officer, a sabbatical position (equivalent to President) of the University of Nottingham Students' Union.
We start off by discussing Nicola's decision to study Law at Nottingham and how she found the learning environment in the immediate post-pandemic period. Whilst she loved the course and her lecturers she did find the cold and dark winter climate a bit too much. Campus and residential life and the immersion in British culture were clear positives and then things really developed when she discovered student representative activity and was persuaded to stand for the part-time position of Students' Union International Officer.
Having been elected into the role she really focused on trying to develop a shared sense of community for those studying away from home, noting the difficulties which often exist when trying to promote engagement with home students. Building on her enthusiasm for democratic representation Nicola was then elected to her current sabbatical position following a campaign which lasted for what she described as two of the hardest weeks of her life.
Nicola discovered she had a huge amount to learn as a new sabbatical and we discuss the ways in which she sought to contribute effectively to represent students at the highest levels within the University and how important the place of officers like her is within the formal structures. It's a really steep learning curve and there is so much more to the role and the students' union than most students imagine.
Finally, we learn that Nicola hopes to build on her law degree in terms of future work plans but nothing is certain yet. It is a really good conversation with a hugely impressive student representative.
This edition of the podcast features, for the first time, two non-Registrars (of which I am of course now one). The foremost of the pair of us though is Olivia Kew-Fickus, Chief Data Officer at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. We begin by learning about Olivia's highly valued and extremely transferable history degree and then her move into UK higher ed leading to a series of roles at the University of Birmingham.
After six years as Director of Strategic Planning at Birmingham Olivia returned to the US for a different kind of planning role and then after a couple of years became Chief Data Officer at Vanderbilt. Apart from learning a slightly different higher ed vocabulary she has worked hard to bridge across the technical data issues and the strategic level matters.
Rankings are a big issue for Olivia and her university at present - whilst Vanderbilt does well in domestic rankings there is real concern about the dubious nature of the methodologies used and the sketchiness of sector data employed. Vanderbilt commissioned a study by a Chicago research unit, NORC, into the issues with ranking methods to inform an exciting new project Olivia is involved in. (You can see the report from NORC here - https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdf2024/college-rankings-review.pdf )
Finally, Olivia reminds us that, whilst universities can be seen as small towns with everything that entails, they also have challenges that few can anticipate. It's a really interesting conversation (in which I over-use, legitimately, the word fascinating) and I hope you enjoy it. I'm sure all in higher ed will also want to celebrate Olivia's achievement in being shortlisted to be Chief Data Officer of the year!
Swedish and UK Registrars learning from each other over four decades
This episode of the podcast sees a second discussion with Lee Sanders, Registrar and Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at the University of Birmingham. This time we are talking about a long standing collaboration between Swedish and UK Registrars, generations of whom have been meeting at a biennial seminar which has been running since 1984. Lee and I both joined the group in 2011 having been tapped on the shoulder for the Cardiff conference and since then have experienced a series of successful events where Registrars from both countries have shared information on similar challenges faced. We note the impressive standard of English of Swedish colleagues and the commonalities and differences of the two national systems as well as the political contexts.
Topics for consideration at seminars over the years have ranged from Brexit and Covid impacts to international research security and student involvement in governance. We also discuss some of the big differences in Sweden which have been explored including the way in which HE capital funding differs and the national student record system in Sweden (Ladok, which also inspired an essay by Paul Greatrix published by HEPI in 2023). In addition to tours and excursions there is a social element to the seminar which also involves a singing competition of dubious quality.
It's a brief run through of the many virtues of a really distinctive collaborative arrangement which has been operating successfully for over 40 years now.
Note that the early history of the collaboration is covered in a report, referred to in the podcast, entitled The Meeting of Minds, An Account of the Joint Seminars of UK and Swedish University Registrars and Secretaries during Three Decades, published in 2015 by Lars Ekholm (sadly not currently available online).
It's time for more exciting bonus content. Whilst on this podcast you will usually find me in conversation with registrars and other higher ed notables, I've got some other diversions to share. There will be some new podcasts along soon but in the meantime I wanted to provide a bit of bonus content.
In this short Registrarologue then you can hear me going on yet again about regulation and setting out a a very personal perspective. This time it is a 10 point plan to save a whole load of much-needed money for the sector by cutting the regulatory burden.
In this episode of University Registrars (and Others) Talking About Stuff I talk to someone who is very much not a registrar but a notable figure nevertheless. Dr Vince Wilson recently retired as Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham and among the stuff we learn about is Vince's distinctive academic journey from a degree in pharmacy to a research degree, a Royal Society fellowship - as part of which he spent a period in Germany - and then a post-doc in Glasgow.
Vince joined Nottingham in 1989 where he was based in the Queen's Medical Centre and being in the same building as a hospital was a big attraction, particularly for translational research. We discuss some of the differences in scale and technology in HE since the 80s but also the increased pressure on academics.
Other significant developments which Vince highlights are the outreach and widening participation agenda which he was involved in and a specific transnational medical education partnership with Thailand which had delivered strong results over many years, as well as enabling him to enjoy a period of work in the sun during the cold winter months.
Vince's passion for music has been ever-present - as well as providing a vehicle for engaging with the public when he was a locum pharmacist and students in the classroom, he highlights the hitherto largely under-reported contribution of one of his heroes, the late, great Gil Scott-Heron, to academia. However, it is to Miles Davis and John Coltrane he turns for his priority Desert Island disc selection.
It's a really different and entertaining conversation and I am sure you will enjoy it.
In the latest episode of University Registrars Talking About Stuff I chat with Dr George Turner, University Secretary and Clerk to the Council at the University of Roehampton.
We naturally discuss George's early academic career which, quite distinctively, started out with him forming a punk band at 16 and then being inspired to study music at Sheffield. He stuck with music as a discipline, ending up with a PhD thesis on the place of the electric guitar before deciding he needed to earn some money, taking the first job he could which happened to be at the University of Derby. After a period working as a cleaner at the university he moved into the challenging area of student complaints and then turned down a job offer at the University of Nottingham in favour of an opportunity at Brunel.
Following a brief diversion on the changing emphasis on the importance of strong written English in university administration, noting the bigger issue for George is skills in data presentation, we move on to his next step, being encouraged by a great boss to apply for the job of Deputy Secretary at Roehampton.
Whilst a big step up he had a real opportunity to grow in the role including honing those governance skills through taking on support for Council committees. A change in VC resulted in the creation of a new role of University Secretary which George successfully applied for. Although admitting to his fair share of imposter syndrome he cites the really strong and supportive environment at Roehampton.
We talk about the features of the university including its long history from its original constituent colleges, three of which include a religious dimension, bringing interesting perspectives to Council. Naturally we discuss regulation too and the approaches to dealing with regulators' expectations on Council in terms of compliance and the impact on its work.
Finally, we discover that, like me George is a big fan of campus security reports.
It's a really good conversation and I hope you enjoy it.
It's time for more exciting bonus content. Whilst on this podcast you will usually find me in conversation with registrars and other higher ed notables, I've got some other diversions to share. There will be some new podcasts along soon but in the meantime I wanted to provide a bit of bonus content.
In this short Registrarologue then you can hear me going on a bit about some of the challenges of dealing with Freedom of Information requests in universities. But I also thought I would share with you some FOI examples which highlight the concerns I have with the operation of the legislation in HE.
This episode of University Registrars and Others Talking About Stuff finds me in discussion with higher education sector data guru Andy Youell.
Whilst Andy started his working life at Rolls Royce working on various aircraft he soon found the appeal of data and HE funding (not to mention sector acronyms) irresistible and joined PCFC just before it merged with UFC and then HEFCE. He became heavily involved in data collection and indeed it was his phone number given as the contact for HESES enquiries. This certainly helped build his sector network, something he continued to develop upon joining HESA in 1996, the beginning of a long engagement which saw him work on all sorts of exciting data projects, including a three year stint running a major sector data improvement programme, HEDIIP (another acronym).
Andy has some excellent insights about the use and misuse of data by both regulators and institutions and the challenges of data governance and the risks for what is still an immature science. We also talk about learner analytics and the data work Andy is doing for his current employer, the University College of Estate Management.
Finally we learn about Andy's ongoing part-time rock star lifestyle - he loves drums and music as well as data - and we uncover a little known fact about his enduring data legacy in relation to the origins of the naming of higher education subject codes.
(With apologies for some background noise in the first part of this recording.)
It's time for more exciting bonus content. Whilst on this podcast you will usually find me in conversation with registrars and other higher ed notables, I've got some other diversions to share. There will be some new podcasts along soon but in the meantime I wanted to provide a bit of bonus content.
In this short Registrarologue then you can hear me going on a bit about one of my favourite topics - regulation.
Yes, here's a bit more exciting bonus content. Whilst on this podcast you will usually find me in conversation with registrars and others, talking all about higher ed matters, I've got some other diversions to share. There will be some new podcasts along soon but in the meantime I wanted to provide a bit of bonus content.
In this short Registrarologue then I wanted to dress up smart and offer a few observations about a highly topical issue - graduation.
It's time for more bonus content. Whilst I'm normally in conversation with registrars and others here, talking about lots of HE stuff, I've got some other diversions to share. There will be some new podcasts along soon but in the meantime I wanted to provide a bit of bonus content.
This short Registrarologue then is a bit of ramble by me all about sinking university buildings. Allegedly.
I hope you enjoy it.
It's bonus content time. Whilst I'm normally in conversation with registrars and others here, talking about lots of HE stuff, I've got some other diversions to share. There will be some new podcasts along soon but in the meantime I wanted to provide a bit of bonus content.
This short Registrarologue then is a bit of ramble by me all about cats on university campuses.
I hope you enjoy it.
This episode of University Registrars Talking About Stuff finds me talking stuff with Lucinda Parr who is Registrar and University Secretary at the University of Bristol. Looking back to the beginning of her career Lucinda recalls working as a departmental administrator at Goldsmiths to help fund her masters and enjoying it so much that she ended up staying. She then moved to a new role working with the Warden on developing the institution's new strategic plan. Lucinda stresses the value to her career of her governance involvement in her Goldsmiths roles and is a passionate advocate for its importance in university life.
She did eventually leave Goldsmiths to take up the role of Secretary and Registrar at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she encountered a very different culture, real research intensity and an extremely clear and distinctive mission. She then joined the University of Bristol, another very different kind of institution which has grown and changed significantly in her time there and has plenty more developments planned. Lucinda has also recently been through the relatively rare experience of managing the appointment of a new vice-chancellor and then supporting their arrival, something she describes as being very much on her registrarial bucket list.
We also talk about some of the challenges faced by universities both external and internally generated and Lucinda observes that institutions often have lots of interesting ideas for innovation but then struggle to stop doing things. Finally we discuss the value of the experience of serving on external boards and Lucinda recalls the distinctive challenges of dealing with a student occupation of a governing body meeting.
In this episode of the podcast I have a really good conversation about stuff, mainly governance related, with Louise Nadal, Secretary at the London School of Economics. We learn about Louise’s career journey, which started with a series of short term roles in London universities culminating in a role in HR at Imperial College at which point she realised she wanted to work closer to the core academic operation so moved to a role in planning instead. Not long after starting this job at Royal Holloway she also acquired governance responsibilities for the first time and this pattern repeated a few years later when she joined Sussex. Following this stint in planning and governance Louise moved back to London as University Secretary at UEL before moving to a similar role at Greenwich and then to her current position at LSE.
Governance then has been omnipresent in Louise’s working life for many years now and she argues that, not only could it be considered sexy, the connections with strategy and planning were particularly relevant.
We look at the key role played by members of governing bodies, how to get the best out of governors and how important it was for them to develop a good understanding of the academic enterprise. Academic governance is identified by Louise as a concept which is often not well understood and she offers some helpful direction.
Exploring the nature of the role of Secretary Louise articulates the value of being able to see how everything fits together across a university and how this helps the Secretary protect the institution. More broadly we consider external challenges from industrial action to new free speech regulation and why universities seem to be easy targets these days.
Finally Louise entertainingly contrasts the higher purpose of many university staff with their ability to waste hours debating the minutiae of issues such as car parking and institutional nomenclature.
The latest episode of the podcast finds me talking to Richard Taylor who is Chief Operating Officer at Loughborough University. Like quite a few others in similar positions Richard's taste for HE management started with a stint as a sabbatical officer at Durham University before landing an exams administration job at Loughborough and then returning north, becoming in due course Head of Marketing back at Durham. From there it was another trip back to the East Midlands where in 2003 Richard was appointed as Director of Marketing at the University of Leicester at a very young age. Working with Bob Burgess (much missed) he grew his portfolio, eventually ending up as Deputy Registrar before landing the job of COO at neighbouring Loughborough where he has now been for almost a decade.
We discuss the distinctive profile of Loughborough University in terms of its sporting environment and activities, student experience and research specialisms. The university has a strong sense of community, belonging and sense of purpose which enhances both student satisfaction and town-gown relations. Looking at the broader higher education landscape Richard observes that it is the sheer breadth of the range of challenges faced by the sector from industrial relations to regulatory compliance which make things so very difficult at present as well as noting that we often make things harder for ourselves by our cautious approach to embracing risk.
Of course we could not let this conversation end without discussing Richard's role in supporting the operation which led to the discovery of the remains of King Richard III in a Leicester car park. This was a remarkable example of academics and amateur historians working together on what turned out to be an internationally noteworthy find which, as Richard observed, speaks to something bigger about the role of universities and their research in society.
Finally Richard reflects somewhat ruefully on Sayre's law and the efforts invested in low stakes activities and unnecessary battles in universities. It's a really good conversation and well worth a listen.
My latest guest on University Registrars (and others) Talking About Stuff is Keith Zimmerman who has just started a new role at King's College London as Executive Director for Transformation of Education and Student Outcomes. Keith has a long and varied career in the sector which began at the University of Exeter where he started a PhD but then had so much fun working as the departmental administrator that he decided to pursue a career in university management. We learn a lot about Keith's time at Exeter and the huge changes he was involved in, working with big figures including Phil Harvey, David Allen and, of course, Steve Smith who had an enormous impact in his time as Vice-Chancellor at the university.
Keith learned a lot from all of them before leaving for Oxford where he worked for five years on a range of administrative reforms and widening participation activities. Finding the pace of change to be just a bit too slow Keith then moved on to the very different environment of the Open University where, once again, he found himself at the heart of transformation activity and spending a great deal of time on the floor of Senate making the case for change. Further change beckoned and, after a brief stint as a head hunter, Keith joined the University of Bath right at the beginning of the first Covid lockdown where, having experienced an extremely rapid induction, he enjoyed a distinctive and productive set of experiences working intensively with senior colleagues across the institution.
Keith has since joined King's where he expects to be involved in yet more transformative activity and at the same has taken on the honorary presidency of the AUA, through which he hopes to make some contribution to the promotion of professional service roles in the sector.
Finally we learn about Keith's experience at an unnamed Oxford College where wholly disproportionate time and energy was devoted in meetings to detailed consideration of care arrangements for the college tortoise.
It's a great journey through a long and really varied HE career and I'm grateful to Keith for sharing his thoughts.
The latest guest on University Registrars (and others) Talking About Stuff is John Rushforth who is Executive Secretary of the Committee of University Chairs (CUC) as well as having a number of other sector roles too. John has been around for quite a few years now and, before he joined the newly formed HEFCE, his early work was with the Audit Commission where he experienced the challenging days of auditing Liverpool City Council in the turbulent 1980s.
His memories of HEFCE are strongly positive and he feels the agency did a difficult job well and was never really captured by the sector as has been the more recent criticism. From HEFCE, John moved to the University of the West of England before eventually joining CUC as part of a portfolio of not really retirement roles.
CUC itself is a small membership organisation which, along with other sector bodies, plays an important part in the under-recognised area of university governance. John draws an interesting comparison between governing bodies and bidets before stressing the vital role that chairs play in public advocacy for the value of higher education.
Beyond the reputational, regulatory and financial challenges faced by the sector John notes the additional burden all of this places on unpaid volunteers on governing bodies. Finally he recounts some of the difficulties he has experienced with some of the more exotic meals he has enjoyed in his various sector roles. It's a really enjoyable discussion with one of the most respected and senior managers in the sector.
The first episode of Season 2 of University Registrars (and others) Talking About Stuff is a landmark in more ways than one. My guest this time is Professor Chris Husbands, Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, who has just announced that he is to leave his role at the end of the year after eight years in charge.
We talk about Chris' career prior to Hallam which included six years teaching in urban comprehensives, stints training teachers and as head of two university schools of education before he became Director of the Institute of Education and led it into merger with UCL.
Exploring the distinctive nature of and challenges faced by schools of education we also discuss the transferability of classroom teaching skills to university leadership from assembly organisation to debates about bog paper requirements in mediaeval monasteries (really).
As VC at Hallam Chris initiated some significant strategic and cultural changes which he feels have really had a major long term impact including the Hallam model for the curriculum, which will certainly continue, along with the civic impact of the university. Part of the approach is also about ensuring fully joined up operations across academic and professional departments, learning from The Blob (the movie), focusing on a shared plan and avoiding trying to do too much.
Finally we learn that Chris has no plans for what he is going to do after Hallam but he does not want to find himself staring into a chasm of emptiness in a year's time and yearning to read health and safety reports and financial statements. I am sure we will see him involved in the sector in some capacity though.
The latest episode of the podcast (number 50! who would have thought we would make it this far) features Chris Hale, Director of Policy at Universities UK. Chris is not a registrar but is very well placed to talk about registrar-related stuff. We learn about his current role in policy and his career trajectory post graduation which saw him fill a number of temporary positions at Sussex University, the GMC and indeed UUK where he went on to secure a permanent role and has remained ever since. In 20 years at UUK he has filled most roles including a brief period acting as Chief Executive.
We explore a range of policy issues including fun with FEC, lobbying over HERA and sector agency rationalisation. Discussing the changed regulatory environment between Dearing and HERA we talk about the challenges for the OfS and the impact of all the additional expectations being loaded on to it by government. We also agree on the need for a fresh look at the role of the regulator, five years on, and for clarity on the future of the Designated Quality Body in England.
Finally we learn about his imminent departure for New Zealand and note that he is very much still on the look out for an HE policy job down under. One area Chris intends to explore further is the anthropology of HE and its acronyms - very fertile ground for research and I'm sure we all look forward to future publications. We will all want to wish Chris all the very best in his relocation to New Zealand.
The latest episode of the podcast sees me talking about stuff with Mike Shore-Nye who is Registrar and Secretary at the University of Exeter. We talk about Mike's role at the university and his title, which now has a classic feel to it but means that it requires some explanation, particularly to those not familiar with university administration. We learn that he has a rather good Registrarial gown too.
After graduation Mike worked for both Majestic Wine and Wetherspoon's before joining the HE sector having decided he needed to do something a bit more worthwhile. Stints at Liverpool, Manchester and Queen Mary Universities followed before he joined Exeter seven years ago.
Interestingly, Mike encountered Tim Martin, founder of Wetherspoon's, at a Brexit debate on campus and Martin picked him out, despite his having left the organisation many years before, and asked how he was getting on.
Mike describes some of the strengths of Exeter and its recent strategy development and resulting organisational realignment in support of delivery of agreed strategic themes, drawing on a rugby analogy to make the point.
Looking to the future Mike sees big challenges ahead in terms of finances, industrial action and the expectations placed on universities and stresses the need for institutions to project ourselves better.
Finally he notes with pleasure the value and joy in graduation ceremonies and observes that the tone and atmosphere of different ceremonies is often aligned to the subject matter, for example slightly staid Law versus exuberant Drama, suggesting perhaps a future university parlour game of guess the discipline from graduation video footage.
In this episode of the podcast, a longer one this time as there is so much to talk about, I'm joined by someone who is not a Registrar but the founder, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Wonkhe, Mark Leach.
We start with Mark's time as a student and subsequently sabbatical officer at the University of Kent where he first became fascinated with university committees and bureaucracy.
Mark credits Wes Streeting, at that time the Vice-President for Education at NUS, for making policy wonkery sexy and indeed Mark ended up working in the HE policy unit set up at Streeting's instigation with the aim of improving NUS's impact on the sector.
After NUS Mark had a stint at HEFCE and came up with the idea of an HE policy blog although was not yet in a position to start it properly as his employer was not supportive. However, having then joined University Alliance as a policy advisor, his new organisation welcomed the idea of him writing an HE policy blog and he started publishing his and other's articles in 2011.
Everything though had to go on hold as he took up an offer to work for Shabana Mahmood who was then Shadow HE Minister under Ed Miliband and needed help to develop Labour's HE brief.
After that exciting period, ended by a reshuffle, Mark took the plunge and decided to start Wonkhe in earnest with his initial concerns being how to get noticed and be useful for the sector. The first step was starting a Monday morning HE briefing which was where things suddenly took off and which Mark now regards as the single most important step for the development of Wonkhe. From here Wonkhe grew rapidly as it filled a genuine need in the sector.
We conclude with Mark's confession about his fondness for the sector's pageantry - he is a sucker for gowns, maces, hats and hoods and believes these distinctive HE traditions need to be celebrated and retained.
For the latest episode of the podcast I have the great pleasure of talking to Niamh Lamond who is Registrar and Chief Operating Officer at Swansea University. Niamh has enjoyed a long career in higher education covering several of the Celtic corners of the sector including Cornwall, Northern Ireland and South Wales. She spent a significant period in Falmouth as part of an institution which grew rapidly from a college into a university, crucially as part of the Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative which started in the late 1990s and brought significant EU resources into a region of real deprivation. Having established a strong partnership and shared services model with Exeter University and also been instrumental in opening a new campus in Penryn (on the site of a convent school) Niamh decided to join Ulster University where she also got involved in exciting major capital developments.
The move to Swansea followed and, as with Falmouth and Ulster, she feels this is a University with a really strong sense of place and community. Swansea has had some significant governance challenges in the recent past but, having spent time rebuilding confidence, is very much focused on the future now and a major organisational improvement programme.
We also discuss the major cost of living and energy crises facing universities and their staff and students. Recognising the demands which would be made of the University as an anchor institution and given the contributions made to the community during the pandemic there is nevertheless, Niamh argues, a primary obligation to ensure that the institution remains financially sustainable in order to preserve jobs and the wider economic benefits it brings to the region.
Finally we learn about Niamh's involvement in a major fundraising programme while at Ulster which included abseiling and sleeping rough as part of a campaign to generate funds to support student health and wellbeing.
[And apologies for some background noise at a number of points in the middle of this recording - start of term activities were well underway nearby.]
In this latest edition of the podcast I talk to Aaron Porter, a consultant extraordinaire and floating higher education all rounder. We explore at some length Aaron's years as a student leader in NUS, first as Vice-President at a time of strong partnership working with politicians and HE agencies, then followed by year as President in 2010-11 during what was one of the most turbulent of periods for the sector and the student movement. Following a change of government and publication of the Browne report the issue of higher tuition fees became a major political issue, with NUS at the heart of it all.
Having spent the summer and early autumn touring students' unions with the aim of building towards a November national demo, Aaron and everyone else, including the Metropolitan Police, was overwhelmed by the scale of the turnout on the day. Whilst largely peaceful a small minority turned towards more aggressive tactics, roundly condemned by Aaron as President at the time, and this led to many subsequent debates and divisions. As Aaron rightly puts it, the consequence of all of this was that the argument ended up being about the tactics of protest rather than about the response to the most significant HE policy change for years.
Looking at more recent issues we discuss Aaron's involvement in the important task of developing and training student members of university governing bodies before considering the wider challenges of governor development and governance within universities. Finally Aaron comments on what he describes as the 'tyranny of politeness' and the impact of this on university operations - we need to be more direct and full and frank in our debates and in our dealings with regulators and government he argues.
Whatever you think about the proposition this is certainly a polite and civilised discussion.
Episode 45 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff features Chris Ince who is University Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer at the University of Hull. We discuss this distinctive title (not quite unique in the sector) and the particular role Chris plays which has real logic to it given the way that the external regulatory environment has grown and the extended responsibilities of governing bodies in England under the OfS.
Chris has had an interesting career journey from sabbatical officer at Imperial College to computer game tester before heading back to Imperial for his first administrative role and then moving on to Kingston and SOAS (where on one occasion he had to hold door shut while students tried to knock it down) before joining London Met and then Hull.
Hull is, we agree, a great place with a long and proud history but with something of a locational challenge in terms of student recruitment. However, those who do make it to the end of the train line, both students and staff, love the place. This passion is also expressed through the university's commitment to its vital position in the city and region where it plays an anchoring role including in relation to the green agenda locally and as it moves towards net zero. We also note the significant financial challenges ahead in terms of the cost of living and energy crises both of which will have a major impact on students and staff.
Finally we explore a couple of unusual aspects of higher education Chris has identified including his surprise at the reluctance of some students to accept rational arguments over principles and the occasional difficulties of some in our institutions to absorb relevant ideas and practices from other sectors.
In terms of institutions which no longer exist we did mention Hefce but failed to discuss the Housemartins.
For episode 44 of the podcast I have the privilege of talking to Hugh Martin, Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer at the British University in Dubai. We review Hugh's career trajectory, which saw him starting in business but then moving into a series of university positions, in a variety of different roles. One of the most interesting of these was the Chief of Staff role, first at St Andrews and then at LSE - this was new and distinctive in UK then but has become much more common albeit something of a poisoned chalice role, leading to challenge from all quarters.
Looking at Hugh's current home at the British University in Dubai, a small and distinctive institution which differs from most domestic and private universities having been established by government and Britain including UK universities, we learn how it started with a strong postgrad and research focus but is now expanding into undergraduate provision meaning it faces stiff competition from other international universities. Undergraduate recruitment will nevertheless be helped by a planned move to a new campus which has been a major activity for Hugh.
Naturally we discussed the changes in England’s quality assurance regime and the difficulty in explaining in Dubai why the OfS and QAA were separating despite QAA‘s well-respected international brand and reputation which has been emulated around the world.
We also explored how things looked from Dubai and the benefits of the different perspective - Hugh observed that being part of AHUA was really positive and that he didn't miss GDPR or FOI but does miss HESA.
Finally Hugh related a great story about the award of an honorary degree by St Andrews to Bob Dylan for his poetry and his minimal engagement with the formalities of the ceremony before departing at pace. While still wearing his gown.
In this, the 43rd episode of the University Registrars Talking About Stuff podcast, I am delighted to be talking to James Rolfe who is Chief Operating Officer at Anglia Ruskin University. James joined Anglia Ruskin some four years ago after an unusual career journey which began in the civil service in Whitehall in the 90s before leading him to a role in social services in Norfolk and then as a senior manager at Enfield Council. We explore some of the differences and similarities with HE with James arguing that really the culture and operations in central and local government are not really that different, rather it is a bit like adjusting the sliders on a graphic equalizer (a reference which only older listeners are likely to get).
ARU operates across three main campuses, in Chelmsford, Cambridge, and, most recently, Peterborough. We explore the practicalities of this together with looking more closely at the terrific new development in the traditional HE cold spot of Peterborough where there remain real ambitions for growth in partnership with the local authorities.
James and I then discuss, given that this was recorded in Confirmation and Clearing week, the particular challenges faced by the latest generation of new students and the need for universities to offer enhanced support to this group both in terms of orientation but throughout their studies to ensure they have every opportunity to succeed.
Finally we look at the wider issues of regulation, competition and collaboration among universities and the great opportunities provided and work done by AHUA, an organisation of which we are both proud to be members.
For episode 42 of the podcast I am in conversation with Khadir Meer, Chief Operating Officer, Registrar and Clerk to the Board at SOAS, University of London. Unusually for the podcast this is the first time we have talked too so it's an interesting way to meet. Khadir has only been in the role for nine months having previously worked as COO and Deputy Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service. Working in the NHS during the pandemic was clearly hugely challenging and stressful and Khadir was understandably excited therefore by the opportunity for a change of direction and the different kind of pressure you get in higher education.
There was already a connection with SOAS and Khadir relates a fantastic story about the impact of a visit to the university as a 13 year old and an encounter at a lecture with an elderly professor teaching Urdu poetry. As COO he has a wide range of responsibilities across professional services and governance and observes that there is a different level of pace and intensity to emergency healthcare where response times are measured in seconds and minutes to a sector where responses are usually in months and years.
We talk about the distinctive nature and history of SOAS, its diversity and the political dimensions of university life, including the very particular experience of managing student occupations, something which was certainly new to Khadir.
The challenges of the post-pandemic return to work are a key concern and we explore the different dimensions of this at SOAS as well as the issues around blended learning and the need to sustain a vibrant campus environment.
Finally we cover the big topic of sector regulation and involvement in the activities of AHUA. It's a really interesting discussion and I hope you agree it is well worth a listen.
In episode 41 of the podcast I talk about stuff with a notable sector leader, Professor Craig Mahoney who is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Law. From growing up on a farm in Tasmania Craig came to the UK to study, ending up at Queen's University Belfast to complete his doctorate before taking up a series of academic posts and ultimately becoming Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of the West of Scotland, a post he held for eight years. Craig rightly feels a sense of real achievement from his time in charge at UWS which he has taken forward into his new role at the University of Law, a very different kind of institution which has a long history but a different operating model as a private for-profit university.
Craig and I reflect on when we first met on the then Leadership Foundation's Top Management Programme and note that he is the only one of the TMP17 cohort to go on to be a VC. We also discuss his passion for teaching and the different approaches required, including the technological innovations developed in response to the pandemic. Craig trained as a teacher but also spent a few years leading the Higher Education Academy.
We also explore Craig's thoughts about the biggest challenges facing the sector which range from the need to be sensitive to the needs and concerns of young people, the importance of a more grown up debate about what universities are trying to achieve, getting to the right age participation rate and the major funding issues facing individual students and the sector as a whole.
We discuss the essential place of sport in university life - Craig is also chair of BUCS - and the many benefits it brings, particularly to students' mental health and well-being. Finally, and most importantly you could argue, we explore the important relationship between registrars and their vice-chancellors.
This is the first time I've spoken to a VC on the podcast and I am delighted it was with such a great character - I do hope you enjoy listening.
Note you can find a recording of Craig's recent inaugural lecture at the University of Law here.
Episode 40 (I can't quite believe we've made it to number 40) finds me in conversation with Dr Tim Bradshaw, Chief Executive of the Russell Group. We hear about Tim's very much unplanned career journey from a geology PhD to presenting to a US Senate Committee and then policy work in the House of Lords and the CBI before moving to a succession of roles in the Russell Group.
Tim advises that the Russell Group, which comprises 24 research intensive universities, is concerned primarily with helping members network, share information and best practice as well as engaging with government - mainly about improving the operating environment via intelligent regulation and sustainable funding - and with talking to the media, trying to get good stories out there, although it can be hard getting the papers interested in good news stories about HE.
We explore the challenges of persuading government to listen and note that, although matters can often seem gloomy for the sector, universities have made good progress on increasing research funding - for Tim this is a real success story in which the Russell Group played a part.
The way in which the media focuses on certain HE stories is a challenge but one area Tim thinks we could do better is in perhaps listening a little more to the concerns of Ministers, looking at where they have genuine issues and find ways to address these in order to avoid unwanted interference. Where there is proposed legislation, Tim suggests there may be ways to address this earlier to reduce its impact but also to give scope for influence and change in other areas.
Tim remains optimistic about the future for the sector, observing that we need to find a different economic way forward for the country now we no longer have a manufacturing base: the nation needs the ideas and talent which emerge from universities he argues. Finally we note that Ministers now and in the future need to better understand and value what universities deliver for the country and really do need to take a longer term perspective on such matters.
I do hope you enjoy the 40th edition.
In episode 39 of the podcast I am really pleased to be speaking to Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK. We begin by looking back at Alistair's career journey which started out with a sabbatical role at Kent before moving into a number of roles which catered for his taste in public policy and higher education. These included a stint as director of communications for the now defunct 1994 group and, following that, a period at the University of Birmingham as Director of Communications and Marketing. A return to London beckoned and Alistair joined Universities UK, initially in External Relations and then as Deputy Chief Executive before successfully applying for the top job after Nicola Dandridge left to head up the Office for Students.
Alistair sought to adopt a different approach at UUK, getting the organisation to take clear positions on major issues rather than going for lowest common denominator stances on the basis that whilst not every member would agree with every policy adopted all of the time, most universities would be on board on most occasions. We talk about the structure of UUK, the strength of UUK International and the core aspects of Alistair's role from trying to influence policy through engaging with politicians and policy-makers, engaging with members and all of the governance and regulatory aspects of running an organisation.
Looking at the bigger picture of government's attitude to and attacks on the sector Alistair notes that universities are seen as a big target and observes that a large proportion of the population now has some connection with an HE institution. This means that universities are under scrutiny as never before and we have to be able to explain ourselves as well as finding ways to share the positive impacts of higher education wherever we can.
Finally, we discuss Alistair's new role, starting imminently, as PVC for Partnerships and Governance at the University of London, and note that he will be eligible to join AHUA in the new position.
In another international outing for the podcast this episode is brought to you via Finland from where I am joined by the first Chief Financial Officer I've spoken to on the podcast, Marianna Bom of Aalto University. We begin by exploring Marianna's career journey, from her first post graduation role working for an elevator company before moving to Nokia, where her strength in Russian language saw her setting up operations in Moscow, before spending some time based in Colombia. Having become tired of the short termism of the commercial world the joined Aalto 12 years ago, just at its establishment, and is now the last person remaining from the original leadership team.
Marianna describes how Aalto was successfully formed from three different universities and a private foundation at the same time as other structural changes in Finnish Higher Education (as also noted in this earlier podcast with Esa Hämäläinen of the University of Helsinki).
The new university was consolidated very quickly onto a single campus bringing immediate benefits from interactions between the disciplines for students and staff alike and some impressive innovations and cultural changes. In terms of professional services Marianna had been used to working in a matrix structure and the establishment of business partners in schools has worked well at the university despite some initial suspicion from some faculty.
Marianna also observes that Aalto is a very international establishment with around 40% of Faculty and a large proportion of students too from outside Finland. Interestingly, most internal meetings are conducted in English because of the range of international staff. We discuss the University's response to Covid which Marianna feels they managed well but are now finding new challenges as staff seek to adapt to hybrid working patterns and aim to rebuild the sense of a community on campus.
Looking at the broader positioning of universities in Finnish society Marianna suggests that one of the biggest challenges they face is in demonstrating their value to the nation and showing the value they add and that Higher Education remains worthy of investment.
We conclude a very interesting discussion by agreeing on our shared appreciation of HUMANE and similar European groups which offer great opportunities for senior university leaders to network and to learn from each other and avoid always reinventing the wheel.
In this edition of the podcast I talk to Wendy Alexander, Vice-Principal International at the University of Dundee, about her remarkable career, her university's international activities, student life after the pandemic and the future direction of higher education in Scotland and the UK.
Wendy's career has taken her around many parts of the world both as a student and in work but it has always had a connection with higher education one way or another. That consistent thread of HE has run through a period of international consultancy, 12 years in and around the Scottish Parliament including a period as Leader of Scottish Labour and more recently as a Higher Education trade envoy for the Scottish Government.
Exploring her current role at Dundee we learn about the development of the university's international activities over the past decade, the growth in student numbers, partnerships in a range of disciplines with universities in Singapore and China (including a visit to Wuhan in early 2020) and a strong and comprehensive programme of humanitarian scholarships for students from the most challenged of circumstances around the world.
Considering the need for that humanitarian approach, especially with the potential for welcoming students from Ukraine, we consider the importance of laying the foundations for those recruits, recognising that sorting out all the details can take time, visa arrangements in particular.
We discuss the changed nature of the student experience and their expectations in a post-pandemic world and the importance of students' unions and related activities to create sense of belonging and note that unions and universities need to work together to provide the right support and resources.
Finally we explore the potential for further divergence of higher education policies across the nations of the UK and Wendy suggests there will be more points of connection as well as perhaps divergence given that HE is one of Britain's few global assets.
In Episode 36 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff I have the opportunity to chat with Jackie Njoroge who is Director of Strategy at the University of Salford. We learn about Jackie's position as Director of Strategy which represents a distinctive and wide-ranging role and one she hugely enjoys. Discussing her unusual career journey we hear how she started out with British Steel in Corby on a graduate entry finance track before a move to a portacabin in even more glamorous Hartlepool where she was issued with steel toe-capped boots, hard hat and a high vis jacket. Having qualified as an accountant Jackie then landed at Northumbria to begin her higher education career journey, and experienced something of a culture shock as she encountered the world of university committees for the first time. Switching between finance and planning roles during her time at Northumbria and also having three children too Jackie then made the move into a strategic planning role at Manchester Met before heading to Salford as Director.
We explore the importance of bridging what can sometimes be seen as a gap between finance and planning to ensure the teams work together effectively, noting that many colleagues often feel more confident challenging student data than finance figures.
Reflecting on her university's Covid experience, Jackie is rightly proud of what staff and students done, particularly given that Salford is big provider of health professionals who all stepped up. She is keen to ensure that colleagues hang on to the things that were good including some of the virtual experiences and the better engagement from students in places and notes the importance of kindness given the tough time and hard work from all. We discuss the challenges of the different stages of returning to campus everyone seems to be at and noting that it is difficult to adopt a blanket approach but that as a campus university students at Salford do expect to see staff in person.
Looking beyond Salford we talk about Jackie's role in HESPA, the national grouping of strategic planners, and its role in engaging with authority to agencies and regulators in language they understand, among other things. Finally we turn to the national picture, university funding, social mobility, the regulatory environment and the importance of connecting to local communities and Jackie concludes by noting that when she joined HE in 2003 it didn't feel like a golden age but in hindsight it probably was something a little more positive than where we are now.
Episode 35 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff is another international edition, this time featuring Martin Melkersson, Chief Operating Officer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
Martin is the first Swedish COO I've talked to about stuff here and we learn firstly about his 10 years at SLU and his broad-ranging role, covering all non-academic matters at the University before hearing about a career journey which saw him starting out as a budding academic at Uppsala University then becoming a teacher before converting to university administration. Following 11 years in various roles at Stockholm University Martin applied for and successfully landed the job at SLU.
SLU is notable for being 'Sweden's longest university' with really significant distances between the three main campuses but also has a number of other large and remote agricultural sites too all of which creates some distinctive practical management challenges for senior staff. We also talk of the pandemic response at the university, noting some of the challenges of teaching learning and assessment, especially with practical courses but also the significant impact on students.
Martin is confident that SLU has come through the pandemic in good shape but development activity has paused and there remain concerns about lots of people wanting to work from home whereas the university is aiming to rebuild the sense of community for staff and students which does require people to be present.
There are many similarities between higher education in Sweden and the UK but also some significant differences, not least in the generosity of research funding, student fee arrangements and property ownership, which Martin helpfully explores. Finally we look at the future of Swedish HE where Martin is optimistic about how things will play out before hearing about a distinctive aspect of SLU's activities, its operation of a research ship on behalf of the government.
See here for a blog on the most recent biennial meeting of registrars from the UK and Sweden as mentioned in the podcast.
In Episode 34 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff I have an interesting half hour chatting about stuff with Steve Knight who has been Chief Operating Officer at the University of Sunderland for six years now. Steve has had a distinctive career journey which started with a 26 year stint in the RAF followed by time at Middlesex University and in the private sector before arriving at Sunderland.
We explore the cultural differences and also, perhaps surprisingly, the many similarities between higher education and the services before discussing the development of health provision at Sunderland and its impressive progress in opening up a new medical school.
Steve is frank about the significant problems presented to the University by a major cyber attack in October which meant that they had to shut down all IT systems and then recover from there, taking 4-6 weeks to get fully up and running again. The attack meant that everyone realised how dependent on technology all operations were and how important it was to have back up plans and alternative communications channels available. This is an increasingly common issue in the sector and Steve has some really sensible advice for all institutions on preparing for and responding to such situations.
This was not the only challenge which faced Sunderland though and came on top of both the ongoing Covid response and major structural damage following Storm Arwen. We also talk more broadly about the impressive achievements of university staff in the face of the pandemic and some of the new challenges Steve predicts coming down the track for the sector in the months and years ahead.
All in all, a really good conversation and I do hope you like it.
In this edition of the podcast I have a really enjoyable chat with Patrick Hackett who is Registrar, Secretary and COO at the University of Manchester. We learn first about Patrick's career journey from architect to working in estates at Royal Holloway and then to Reading followed by a spell of consultancy before a 13 year stint at Liverpool University and then the move to Manchester, each time broadening his remit.
The importance of the estate to universities is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a hot topic for Patrick and as we begin, hopefully, to come out of pandemic he sees it as even more vital in terms of changes to working practices.
We talk too about Manchester's experimentation with hybrid working which was essentially being viewed as a big project with regular reviews of what works and what doesn't and then refinements introduced. Flexibility and finding new ways to help staff focus on outputs whilst operating on the basis of trust were seen as key but one of the biggest challenges was recreating opportunities for the informal interactions which are such an important feature of working life. This work is part of a wider professional services transformation project at Manchester which recognises the key role professional services staff play as part of a combined university operation with everyone pulling in the same direction.
Finally, we look at the wider external pressures on universities, touching on the need for sustainable funding for research, before noting the need for staff wellbeing to remain a priority.
For this Episode, number 32 in the series of University Registrars Talking About Stuff, I had the privilege of talking about stuff to Stephan van Galen of Groningen University in the Netherlands. We caught up for an in person (in person!) chat at recent HUMANE Winter School where both of us were presenting case studies on our universities and their approaches to internationalisation.
We naturally began with Stephan's career history before moving on to the value of the HUMANE Winter School and its wider network which brings heads of administration together from across Europe and helps professional services staff interact and learn from each other and understand better our shared challenges.
The powerful Winter School model which is based on case studies, includes an examination of the Groningen experience of seeking to open a campus in Yantai in Shandong Province in China and why it ultimately did not happen, primarily because of the change in the political situation and increasing tension between the US and China which also impacted on the Netherlands.
After this experience the University had to recover and with a new President sought to focus on its local roots in the region and began to look at its international strategy afresh. Groningen has been around for over 400 years and recruited internationally throughout with more and more programmes now delivered in English. Student recruitment has been buoyant this year at Groningen and, whilst UK student numbers were expected to drop, they didn't and there was also a big increase in applications from the rest of the EU, causing a major student housing challenge in the city.
We also discussed, of course, Groningen's Covid response and agreed that the speed of the switch to online learning was really fast and impressive across universities. In terms of the future Stephan sees continued worldwide demand for high quality education the delivery of which can be amplified, rather than replaced, by online provision.
It's a great conversation and I do hope you enjoy another international offering of University Registrars Talking About Stuff.
This latest episode of University Registrars Talking About Stuff provides an extremely welcome return for Newcastle University's legendary Registrar Dr John Hogan. Back in Episode 9 John and I talked, among other things, about stuff such as the impact of cuts in the 80s, the experience of working at the University of Warwick, life under lockdown and financial challenges ahead for the sector.
This time John once again demonstrates his passion for effective university management across a wide range of areas and recalls some recent experiences as well as a few issues from the past.
We explore the very different start to this term, noting that there are many fewer student Covid cases but many challenges remain although vaccination rates are impressively high.
The issue of collaboration versus competition in the sector prompts much debate as does the nature of university marketing operations and John's particular irritation at our spend on online advertising.
We look too at the growth over time in professional staff numbers and so-called 'administrative bloat' noting that much of this is in response to external regulatory demands from which universities often aim to insulate academics and students.
The culture of administration is an area of great interest for John and in particular his concern that we don't need to be brilliant with some activities, just legally compliant, in order to minimise the additional burden on the university. You will be pleased to note he has a number of slightly controversial observations on this issue too.
Finally, we look back at a major change project at Newcastle some years ago to which John contributed, the move of professional services from a warren of terraced houses to a shiny new building. This new structure was much more focused on providing a better service for students and a better working environment for staff as well as reducing the number of doors between the Registrar and the HR director from 23 to a slightly more sensible level.
John lauds the nature and role of universities as amazing transformational places where he has worked throughout his career. Sadly for all of us though he has recently announced his retirement in 2022. The sector will be much less interesting without his presence.
In the latest episode of University Registrars Talking About Stuff it is my great pleasure to talk to Ken Sloan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Senior Vice-President (Enterprise and Governance) at Monash University in Australia. As is customary we start by exploring Ken's varied career journey, from an initial brush with accountancy before a typically varied career at the University of Warwick, including an overlap with me at the government-inspired National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, NAGTY, before becoming Deputy Registrar. Ken then had a brief stint in the private sector before returning to Warwick as Registrar and COO and then ending up at Monash.
Inevitably we discuss the distinctive nature of the Warwick experience and the key question asked of all ambitious administrators - do they have a Registrar's baton in their knapsack? With NAGTY Ken reflects on the consequences of the tension between short term government policy initiatives and longer term strategic objectives of a university before commenting on the very different perspective of working for a private sector company aiming to deliver a public good ethos and what seemed to be a rather unusual recruitment process.
The move to Monash was one Ken felt prepared for and noted the importance of not assuming the same words in the same language have same meaning. The initial experience as Deputy Vice-Chancellor felt quite different to being a Registrar and Ken had a lot to learn including about the need to influence with limited resources to direct together with the challenges of coping with the different policy streams emerging from State and Federal government , not to mention the impact of closed borders on operations under Covid. Monash has developed plans for recovery and learned a great deal from the pandemic from focusing on student retention, partnerships and relationships with business, moving more rapidly to e-assessment and different working patterns.
Ken has recently been announced as the next Vice-Chancellor of Harper Adams University back in the UK and he is now looking forward to supporting the university's strong student focus and focus on food, sustainability and technology innovation there, noting that the impact of Brexit on agriculture entails a very different approach but also new areas of collaboration. In conclusion Ken reflects on what is still an unusual journey in the UK from administrator to VC.
In Episode 29 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff I chat with Jim McGeorge who is University Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at the University of Dundee. We discuss Jim's career which took him from a PhD in Fish parasitology to administrative roles at Abertay, Stirling and Dundee as he moved from academic work to the 'dark side'. He shares how he actually enjoyed the administrative aspects of academia rather than actual research but does feel that he is now in a position where he is not just empathising with the academic mindset but is better placed to support the creation of an environment for academic colleagues to thrive. Looking at how Dundee is seeing the way forward Jim notes its great strength in life sciences where it has an international reputation and that it is looking at the University's future size and shape. A new Vice-Chancellor started during the pandemic and the entire recruitment and selection was undertaken online with lockdown necessitating a creative induction process. In terms of the civic agenda Abertay and Dundee are both big employers with lots of students and are therefore real income generators for the city. Jim observes that the relationship with the City Council is really positive and supportive and comments that a big feature of the selling proposition of the City is the university. The opening of the Victoria and Albert museum helped too to put Dundee on the map and it is expected that the proposed Eden project development in city will amplify this too. Naturally we discuss the impact of Covid and Jim stresses that the on campus experience will remain vital for Dundee. In terms of working arrangements the aim will be to combine the best of what was there before with the best of what has been learned over the past 18 months and ensure flexibility in the response. He also welcomes the recognition of the importance of many parts of professional services which emerged during pandemic and the greater respect for technicians, security, estates staff and many others without whom the university could not operate. We also explore the legislative divergence between the nations in the UK and the difference in approaches to managing the pandemic in Scotland. Noting that north of the border government ministers are much closer to universities Jim nevertheless feels that the level of regulatory intervention is lower in Scotland than England under the OfS. There are many more challenges ahead though including in funding and restating the value of universities and the mood in Dundee remains positive - Jim's glass is very much three quarters full.
In Episode 28 of the University Registrars Talking About Stuff I am in conversation with Roger Gair, University Secretary at the University of Leeds. Roger has enjoyed a long and distinguished higher education career and, unusually, all of it has been at the same university. After over four decades at Leeds, almost half of that time as University Secretary, Roger must be one of the longest serving administrative leaders in the UK. Although no-one has checked. Looking back over his career Roger observes how the pace of work has undoubtedly picked up and working practices changed and moved from gifted amateurism to much greater professionalism. When Roger started out he had to write out minutes longhand and fondly remembers the excitement of his first access to word processing facilities. We discuss the impact of the Thatcher cuts to HE in 1981, just as Roger was beginning his career, and he recalls the dramatic impact of them on the university back then, including on the Vice-Chancellor who was himself a former Conservative education Minister. Whilst those cuts felt like a real attack on universities the impact was not dissimilar to the Covid experience in terms of the scale and consequences. We explore the Leeds response to the pandemic and the wider HE issues together with what Roger describes as the corrosive impact of the government narrative on the relationship between students and their universities. During all of this Leeds has welcomed a new Vice-Chancellor too and Roger outlines the difficulty of providing a proper induction for her under lockdown and how well she has responded to the challenges of starting the role at a time of remote working for many. Other aspects of Covid recovery are considered too and Roger looks forward to the opportunities presented by his forthcoming retirement. Finally Roger clears up some of the background to an architectural wonder at Leeds, the fact that it is home to one of the longest corridors in Europe, a notable construction that actually predates his arrival at the University.
The latest edition of University Registrars Talking About Stuff sees me chatting to Lee Sanders, Registrar and Secretary at the University of Birmingham Lee talks about his all-encompassing role across professional services at Birmingham as well as in relation to governance and as a member of the university executive. Drawing on experiences from both Durham and Warwick (where Lee and I worked together for a period) he observes that things have changed considerably since our time at Warwick and we have all had to adapt to what is now a very different operating environment for universities. Lee comments on the convening power of a registrar and notes the value of this in the context of responding to the pandemic over the past year. He also reflects on the importance of partnerships in the response, including partnerships with students, between academics and professional services staff, and across professional services too. Other features of the pandemic response he highlights are communicating with confidence, not over-complicating things and enlisting the support of the expert academic community, from establishing testing facilities to forming advisory groups. We also talk about the importance of the longer term and thinking to the future including the blended learning experience, changes to working practices from agile working to changed operational processes and different uses of space on campus. Finally we discuss the value of the generalist administrative experience and the benefits of graduate training schemes including Birmingham' own scheme which has been running in parallel to the national Ambitious Futures programme. Lee and I firmly agree on the importance of addressing the future leadership needs of sector via such schemes as well as recruiting talented administrators who have also made a great contribution to the recovery effort.
The latest edition of University Registrars Talking About Stuff offers the opportunity to hear from Douglas Blackstock, Chief Executive of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. We learn all about the work of the QAA and how it has shrunk significantly in size in recent years but remains an organisation with global reach and one which is still complex in terms of its operations dealing with hundreds of institutions in the UK and many similar agencies overseas too. QAA operates as a UK-wide organisation and, while there may be policy divergence, the quality code remains UK wide and the agency sustains important relationships with funding bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The international perspective is significant and valuable as there is real respect for the UK higher education brand overseas but also a desire to learn from the British experience and overseas agencies will look at QAA reports for the authoritative view of the quality of UK provision. We also discuss the QAA's key relationships and work with PSRBs which is really important to the sector, particularly during the pandemic and look at how it relates to other part of of the regulatory landscape too. Covid has had a significant impact on the work of the Agency - although many staff were already working remotely because they tend to spend a lot of time on the road the organisation had to adapt quickly to the new challenges, to help people with working from home. There are undoubtedly opportunities for different working approaches in future, especially given the previous requirements for significant international travel for staff, leading to savings in time and money. Douglas applauds the efforts of all staff and students in universities in supporting the response to the pandemic noting in particular the extent of student volunteering and the work of Students' Unions. Having bumped into each other in a number of roles over the years Douglas reminds me that I advised him many years ago not to go and work for the QAA as it wouldn't be around for long. I could not have been more mistaken and we hear about his time at the agency following a journey which took him from a late starting student in Glasgow to SU officer and sabbatical then working in students' unions before joining the QAA. He ended up staying and developing his career there and then found himself as acting Chief Executive before being confirmed in the position and sees all of this as fundamentally confirming the value of higher education - he would not have got to where he is now without it. With retirement now in sight for Douglas this is a really great run through the work of QAA and his part in it.
Episode 25 (a bit of a landmark) features our first international guest on University Registrars Talking About Stuff. Esa Hämäläinen is Director of Administration at the University of Helsinki and also Chair of a notable European higher ed association, HUMANE, the Heads of University Management & Administration Network in Europe. We learn about Esa's background in several Finnish universities and in a students' union, including working on research policy, organisational development, in central administration, before ending up as the equivalent of Registrar at Helsinki, a position he has held for the past 10 years. Helsinki has historically enjoyed considerable autonomy but universities in Finland now are significantly more autonomous than a decade or so ago including in terms of finances, senior appointments and governing body membership decisions. Esa describes the history of his University which is the oldest in Finland and was established in 1640 in the city of Turku which was at that time part of the Swedish empire. It moved to its current location almost two centuries ago and is now a large comprehensive university. According to Esa the University has important commercial activities, most significantly a national University pharmacy chain, established in the 19th Century. We also discuss the structure of the higher education system in the country, engagement with government and dealing with politicians and their HE priorities. Unsurprisingly, the Covid response has taken up much of Esa's time over the past year with many of the issues being common to universities across the country and shared with the UK experience. Helsinki was reasonably well-prepared in terms of its digital activity according to Esa but still faces significant challenges in terms of student and staff well-being. We talk through likely changes to professional services working patterns in the post-pandemic environment and the university's planning for the future landscape and new agile work and delivery models. Finally, considering the post-Brexit position, we hear about the role of HUMANE in terms of professional networking, residential schools and seminars and developing and supporting professional services leaders and aspiring leaders. Esa stresses the value of the organisation in helping members learn from each other, build their own networks and identifying new areas for collaboration among other benefits.
In this episode of University Registrars Talking About Stuff it is my enormous pleasure to be talking to Sheena Stewart who is University Secretary at Abertay University in Dundee. Sheena has worked at Abertay for an extraordinary 30 year period but, given what we have been through lately, we mainly look back at the past 12 months and then into the future too. Sheena has led the University's Coronavirus response team throughout this time and observes that the reaction of colleagues across the institution to the Covid challenge has been tremendous, representing a really powerful team effort. Collaboration with the University of Dundee and Dundee & Angus College as well as with the City Council and Public Health has been really powerful and positive throughout this period and similarly at national level with Universities Scotland and NUS Scotland working well together with universities and the Scottish Government. Thinking about new patterns of working for the future which have emerged from the experiences of the last year Sheena highlighted the steps taken to include voices from a diverse range of colleagues across the University in developing policies and procedures. Stressing that not everything can be perfect, for staff or students, has been important in setting expectations and students have responded extremely well even in the most trying circumstances. Looking at the uncertain future for the sector including regarding student applications, international enrolments and the impact of new Covid variants Sheena is nevertheless optimistic about what the years ahead hold. Given the experience of blended teaching delivery, flexible working and patterns of student learning it looks like Abertay is well placed to deliver successfully on its strategy in the years ahead. Sheena is similarly upbeat about the prospects for the rest of the sector too.
In the latest edition of University Registrars Talking About Stuff, Episode 23 in the series, I’m in conversation with Andrew Young, Chief Operating Officer at the London School of Economics. We talk about Andrew’s career history - from Newcastle to the capital - and the joys and challenges of working in an institution with such a distinctive history and character as the LSE as well as the experience of the London context for working patterns.
The excellent response of staff to the start of the lockdown is covered along with the need to move quickly and beyond prepared incident management procedures and remain agile - in order to be ready for next time, be it another pandemic or even, as Andrew suggests, a meteorite strike! In such circumstances there is a real reliance on all staff pulling together, drawing on everyone’s institution knowledge but also as Andrew notes retaining a sense of perspective on the usual administrative challenges and giving colleagues the space to work through difficult issues.
We discuss the distance between Ministers and universities in terms of decision making and the need for Whitehall to be better informed about the realities of higher education operations rather than just issuing edicts. Finally we look at the issues around the possibility of university closures and mergers post-pandemic, concluding that latter seems quite likely in the years ahead.
Episode 22 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff finds me in discussion with Gill Aitken, Registrar at the University of Oxford. Gill talks through her career from private sector legal firm to civil service lawyer in the Department of Health, also leading various professional teams, and now her first couple of years at Oxford where she has responsibility for a wide range of professional services departments as well as, inevitably, the University's Covid response. We explore her experience of making the transition from civil servant to Registrar, an increasingly common step, and the transferability of approaches and experience including successfully managing complexity, influence and relationships. Discussing the Covid response at Oxford we learn about how the University’s 39 colleges added an extra layer of complexity but actually worked together extremely well with all pulling in same direction and making great contributions to the collective effort as well as managing local support for students very capably. Gill comments too on the successes of the University’s own test and tracing system where it was able to get results quickly and manage local tracing effectively to control clusters and minimise the spread. Oxford has also made a significant Covid research contribution and is (at time of recording) hoping for a positive announcement on vaccine development. We talk about some other issues too including the really positive relationships with the City and County Councils, the supportive response from local communities, the new approach to professional services working patterns we all anticipate will happen post-pandemic and the longer term prognosis for the UK higher education sector. I hope you enjoy this really interesting half hour of conversation.
Episode 21 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff welcomes Richard Calvert, Deputy Vice Chancellor Strategy and Operations at Sheffield Hallam University, for an interesting conversation about the current challenges and wider issues too. Richard talks us through his long and varied civil service career, which included major stints at DfID working with some notable Secretaries of State and some major work on organisational effectiveness in the civil service and in other agencies too before ending up at Sheffield Hallam four years ago. We learn about some of the big changes he has made since he arrived with a real focus on breaking down silos but also trying to address the unhelpful academic/professional services divide, trying to avoid ‘us and them’. Looking at wider university strategy, Richard notes that it is important to align both professional and academic strategy inputs and to eliminate much of the baggage which people bring to institution-wide discussions. The professional service changes Richard made in previous years really helped prepare ground for an effective covid response and, although each week brings its fresh challenges he feels that academic and professional services staff have responded extraordinarily well although there is still a long way to go. We also discuss how the crisis management mode we are all in at the moment makes it difficult to think longer term which is why it is important to continue to focus on strategy development and seek to encourage colleagues to think ahead and remain optimistic for our institutions. In terms of the long term prospects for the sector Richard is also optimistic but stresses that it is vital that universities demonstrate their real value at local level and also show the value of higher education to the country. A really interesting and stimulating discussion which we hope you enjoy.
Episode 20 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff features Steve Marshall, Secretary and Registrar at the University of the Arts London talking about lots of topical higher ed matters. Steve talks us briefly through his career and how he ended up at UAL before we explore the nature of the role of Secretary and Registrar and equivalents within universities, considering whether such roles are indeed the last postings for the gifted amateur or perhaps more realistically a destination for those with real breadth of experience and knowledge within universities. The jury is clearly out on that one. The pandemic is, of course, central to the discussion and we learn about UAL’s response to lockdown and all of the preparations which had been undertaken for such an eventuality although no-one, of course, expected it to be quite so dramatic. Nevertheless, the University had responded well including to the particular challenges faced by art and design students. UAL had also determined early on to start the 20/21 session later in October which is a decision Steve feels is a particularly helpful one looking around at other institutions’ experiences. We also talk about all of the stuff around the future working model for university professional services as well as the experience - a mixed one - of online meetings of one kind and another. Finally, drawing on the UAL experience, we explore the likelihood of future mergers in the sector and note that these things take time, investment and commitment. A packed higher ed half an hour.
In Episode 19 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff we welcome the return of Dave Hall whose company we haven’t enjoyed since Episode 8. Much of the stuff we catch up on this time is related to Dave settling in to his new role as University Secretary at the Open University, the challenges of changing job during lockdown, the distinctive mission of his new employer (which he has now learned nearly all of) and his pleasure at discovering he would have a campus to work at (eventually). Dave discloses the surprising news that he has developed a new level of basic IT competence which has come in extremely useful in engaging remotely with his colleagues from all parts of the large operation of the OU across the UK. We also discuss the challenges facing our sector in the context of changing government moods and set against the broad sweep of higher education history (“a blip” suggests Dave) and the view form some quarters that all universities are trying to do is grow a load of mini Che Guevaras. It’s good to have him back.
In Episode 18 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff Paul Greatrix talks to Sophie Bowen, Chief Operating Officer at Middlesex University. We learn about Sophie’s career progression from graduate trainee at the University of Birmingham to her current role and what this experience tells us about the place of generalists and specialists in university administration.
Looking at the lockdown experience we reflect on the extraordinary response of all parts of the university community to addressing the challenges of remote learning and working and what this means for supporting the health and welfare of staff and students. We also explore the implications for staff and student engagement, learning from innovative practices and the new approach to university meetings and the skills enhancements required to run them effectively. Finally, we look at the bigger picture, in particular university relationships with government and the challenges which lie ahead for an increasingly diverse sector.
Episode 17 of University Registrars Talking About Stuff finds Paul Greatrix talking to June Hughes, University Secretary and Registrar at the University of Derby. We hear all about June’s higher education history which has been spent, unusually these days, at just one institution, her current one. Derby has changed hugely in the time June has been there and during her career she has fulfilled most of the core administrative roles you could imagine. We discuss how that broad experience and institutional knowledge has undoubtedly helped support and shape what has been a really positive and collaborative response by June’s colleagues to the pandemic challenges.
Maintaining a compassionate outlook, coping with extended periods on Teams and planning for the various scenarios which might play out this autumn are explored together with the financial issues facing all institutions at the moment. Finally, although it is acknowledged that there may be mergers ahead in parts of the sector, voluntary or otherwise, and there are big clouds on the horizon, the outlook in the long term remains positive and June for one is optimistic about the future, despite the current challenges.
Episode 16 in the series of podcasts featuring University Registrars talking about stuff. This time Paul Greatrix talks to Joanne Clague, Registrar and Chief Operating Officer at Queen’s University Belfast, about a wide range of topics both pre- and post- pandemic. We learn a bit about Joanne’s background and how she spurned auditing to pursue a varied pathway through many different areas of professional services in higher education and also enjoyed a particularly valuable experience in the NHS where she picked up a real taste for innovation and partnership which has translated well into her current role.
We explore the many challenges of lockdown and the phased return to work for professional services staff along with the strategies for trying to plan for different ways of working in the future along with helping to promote wellbeing for staff. The likely campus experience for students arriving in September is discussed along with the likelihood or otherwise of anyone hitting their international student recruitment targets. Finally, we look at the distinctive case of HE in Northern Ireland and what the future holds for universities there and in the sector more broadly.
Episode 15 in the series of podcasts featuring University Registrars talking about stuff. This time Paul Greatrix talks to Steve Denton, Registrar and Chief Operating Officer at Nottingham Trent University, about a variety of big ticket items in higher education at the moment, including, of course, matters pandemic. We look at Steve’s long career in the sector in a series of institutions where, for one reason or another, he has been involved in mergers or the consequences of them including some significant governance challenges. And the fact that they all seem to change their names after he has moved on...
The prospect for new mergers in the sector looms large and we also cover the response of NTU and its staff to the lockdown as well as the huge programme of preparations for the new session in September, not least the issues to be addressed with the arrival of thousands of students into the city. The vital role played by both universities in the City of Nottingham is explored together with the issues, challenges and benefits that brings for the region and the ways in which the two institutions are working collaboratively and with other partners, under the Universities for Nottingham banner, to try to make a difference. There is also consideration of the response of universities to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Episode 14 in the series of podcasts featuring University Registrars talking about stuff. This time Paul Greatrix talks to Smita Jamdar, Partner and Head of Education at legal firm Shakespeare Martineau and, on account of broad and distinguished service in higher education, very much an Honorary Registrar. We discuss Smita’s legal background and how she and her firm have responded to the diverse range of legal needs of universities which have grown over the years. Support has ranged from helping with the typical Friday afternoon crises to making a really positive contribution to support decision-making in institutions and being an active partner rather than the ’treacle department’ which slows everything down.
The ways of working during the crisis and post-pandemic in legal firms and universities are compared and contrasted. We agree that universities have responded extremely well to the pandemic challenges and, regardless of the imposed market environment, are all trying to do the right thing for students and staff. Moreover, universities have their work cut out to resist the tidal wave of regulation and it is here that we see the added value of the legal perspective in helping universities navigate their way through the regulation but also utilising the policy advice too.
The 13th episode in the series of podcasts featuring University Registrars talking about stuff. This time Paul Greatrix talks to Rachel Sandby-Thomas, Registrar at the University of Warwick about a variety of current issues in higher education, many of them Covid-19 related. Rachel fills us in on her extensive and varied career as a lawyer in the civil service before she joined Warwick and describes how valuable this experience in Whitehall has been in her role, although she denies forcefully that Francis Maude has in any way influenced her leadership style. We discuss the many ways in which the pandemic has impacted university life from the novelty of online Council meetings to car parking benefits and how the response to the coronavirus has really brought the university community together with staff contributing their expertise and time in response to the crisis. The negative perception of universities in the public eye and in government and the expectation that significant strings will be attached to any support package are also explored. Finally we look at the possibility of mergers - which are very far from being a silver bullet - the likely resurgence of FE and the skills agenda and the fact that the crisis has highlighted the need for a complete rethink of the current higher education model in England.
The latest episode in the series of podcasts featuring University Registrars talking about stuff. This time Paul Greatrix talks to Dr David Duncan, Chief Operating Officer and University Secretary at the University of Glasgow about a range of higher education topics mainly relating to the pandemic.
We learn a bit about David’s career, the response of Glasgow to the lockdown and talk about future working arrangements. There is some discussion about the slightly different higher education situation in Scotland as well as what are going to be challenging arrangements for trying to bring a new normality to campus life in the coming academic year. Financial challenges, international student recruitment, the perception of universities in the public realm and the need to avoid presenting matters as a rapidly approaching apocalypse for universities are also explored.
A new episode in the series of podcasts featuring University Registrars talking about stuff. This time Paul Greatrix talks to Registrar and Secretary at the University of Brighton, Stephen Dudderidge about his career, the response to the crisis at all levels of his university, the need for new ways of working and for administrative agility in particular. We also discuss streamlining processes and ensuring consistent implementation, the likely legacy of the crisis in terms of staff anxieties as we move into the new normal as well as planning for the first post-pandemic graduations.
Episode 10 in the series of University Registrars talking about stuff. In this edition Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talks to Nicola Owen, Deputy Chief Executive Operations at Lancaster University about her career, life under lockdown, her University’s response to the current crisis and what the future holds, both for the sector and for AHUA, the Association of Heads of University Administration where Nicola has recently taken over as chair. Nicola shares some of the lessons learned from Storm Desmond and what the future holds, including for university professional services where empowerment has begun to get rather real. We also discuss the implications of the recently announced and rather skimpy support package for higher education in England, the distinctive nature of the campus university spirit and the many ways in which universities have contributed to the national effort in tackling the crisis.
In this episode Paul Greatrix talks to Dr John Hogan of Newcastle University about the impact of cuts in the 80s, the Warwick experience (again), life under lockdown and many a financial challenge ahead for the sector
Episode 8 in the series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. In this instalment Dave Hall of the Open University and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talk about some more highly pertinent higher education matters, this time it is largely about matters ceremonial. First off we look at the thorny issue of the award of honorary degrees and the move from awarding them to eminent and worthy but largely unheard of academic high achievers to the more recent trend of focusing on those with more star quality and celebrity status. Terry Wogan, Brian Clough and John Cooper Clarke all get a mention as does Dave’s failed attempt to engage Archbishop Desmond Tutu in profound theological debate. High profile honorary degree revocations are covered too together with the risks of recognising serving politicians. From honorary degrees we move naturally to the ceremonial position of university chancellors where again there are some striking examples of both celebrity and more mainstream appointments to what still seem to be valuable roles for institutions. Finally we consider the controversial issue of graduation dress where the centuries old gown market is being disrupted thanks to a Dragons’ Den supported company. It’s a mortar board jungle out there.
Episode 7 in the series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. In this instalment Dave Hall of the Open University and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham discuss a diverse range of key issues from controversial speakers to reindeer on campus. Universities are expected and required to be guardians of free speech but we often find we have speakers whose views we might not like and many might find upsetting and in ensuring we meet our legal obligations we can end up annoying almost everyone. Universities have to bend over backwards to accommodate speakers and yet are regularly berated by politicians and the media for not doing this despite the absence of evidence. There remains therefore the possibility of further legislation but this is fraught with difficulty and it does seem that, against the odds perhaps, the existing laws do actually work.
Looking at the issue of ethical investments, this is noted as another area where student protest has, over time, really shifted the debate and led to fossil fuel divestment although there remain different views about research collaboration with the same companies on environmentally beneficial projects.
Finally there is the salutary example of protests about the presence of visiting reindeer on campus being used to support a charity promoting environmental work which leads inevitably into an exploration of the value of puppy rooms, the possible impact of emotional support animals and the surprising popularity of Canada geese, despite their unpleasant deposits.
This is the sixth in the series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. In this episode Dave Hall of the Open University and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talk about the different elements of the highest level of university governance. Goings on at the governing body are largely unseen by many within universities and there is a real need to ensure governing body members understand the university better and are more visible to staff. The importance of drawing the line between governance and management as well as getting the core elements of business operations right are explored along with the need for the involvement of students and staff in the big decisions. Unsurprisingly perhaps the vital role of the Registrar as secretary to the governing body is emphasised as is the need for them to support both the chair and Vice-Chancellor in ensuring effective governance. There’s also plenty of discussion about the role of the VC and a defining governance moment in the history of the University of Nottingham.
Episode 5 in the series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. Dave Hall of the Open University and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talk through a number of areas of university life including the challenging issues around supporting animal research, student protests and occupations and the impact that students can have on the local community.
We look at the difficulties associated with building a new animal research facility, the desire of universities to be more open about the research they conduct involving animals and the benefits this brings together with the need to engage with those holding very different views. Protests on campus are often student led and these can be very challenging as with the example of student objections to a particular sculpture results in an expletive utterance directed at the Registrar by the protestors. Oops. Having explored why students are not snowflakes and the success of major student led campaigns around sexual violence and harassment and decolonisation the issues of student impact on local communities are also considered. University life in all its rich and diverse glory.
Episode 4
Welcome to the fourth in the series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. Dave Hall of the University of Leicester and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talk through a number of items of registrarial interest with the focus this time very much on teaching and learning. The big issues addressed include: are we doing the right things in the classroom and how do we know; what is higher education actually for - is it all about getting a great job or more to do with lliving a good life and being a good citizen; and shouldn’t senior managers be focusing on all of this a bit more? There’s lots of discussion too on curricula, community and inclusivity and the extent to which social class is still a vital issue in higher education. There are also meanderings through the corridors of the School of Life, some mention of the rankings and then the place of academic discourse in public life. A packed agenda to enjoy.
The third in the series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. Dave Hall of the University of Leicester and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talk through a number of items of registrarial interest including some of some of the more unusual aspects of the Registrar role, such as working with partners in challenging environments from Afghanistan to Ethiopia to Iraq and Malaysia and China. Some contrasts with Swedish HE are noted before things move on to the exceptional challenges of portraits, diversity and gas pipelines. Yes, really.
The second in the series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. Dave Hall of the University of Leicester and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talk through a number of topics including job titles, from Registrar to COO to CFO and all points in between, the most enjoyable and least satisfying aspects of being a Registrar, the excitement and challenges of a good crisis and lots of stuff about meetings and minute writing. Leicester city fans will be delighted their team features here as will family and friends of Richard III. There’s also reference to robots and artificial intelligence but also a bit of a shout for the more traditional notice board.
The very first in a series of podcasts featuring two university Registrars talking about higher ed stuff. Dave Hall of the University of Leicester and Dr Paul Greatrix of the University of Nottingham talk through a number of topics including the role of the Registrar, some key responsibilities of the job and Dave’s career trajectory from the army and rebellion in the ranks to sabbatical officer and university administrator. The shared Warwick experience - both worked at the University for a period - including their (very small) part in organising the visit of Bill Clinton visit to the institution and some aspects of ’the Warwick Way’ are covered. A surprising encounter with Jeremy Vine is noted along with some other additional perhaps slightly curmudgeonly observations about university life today.