Big shoes to fill for the new Uni boss
MONTHS of looking for the right candidate for Vice Chancellor have now ended for Deakin University.
As we report, the job has gone to Prof Iain Martin who comes here from the UK and has experience as VC over there.
John Stanhope will continue on as chancellor providing continuity as outgoing VC Jane den Hollander hands over the many reins.
We welcome Prof Martin to our fantastic university, city and region and wish him every success.
He is likely to feel a long shadow in taking over from Prof den Hollander due to her energetic years of contribution to Deakin and her passion for its role in Geelong.
A modern university is no easy thing to run. They are expected by some to be a business and be involved in the international student trade. At the same time, others want their priority to be as independent centres of academic excellence rather than ‘diploma factories’.
A university like Deakin is expected to be financially viable while, unlike Monash and Melbourne, not being flush with large bequests.
This is where Prof den Hollander’s skills came into their own. An enthusiast, consummate networker and a force of nature, she has been perhaps mostly a canny and robust negotiator.
She made enemies of course, left some with hurt feelings, or checking their pockets.
She is a fan of the Keatingism to ‘always back self-interest — at least you know its trying’. But to bastardise another Keating phrase you never wanted to get between her and a government grant.
Deakin, under den Hollander, won many. It invested — and partnered — presciently in science, and research and development which has led to the burgeoning advanced manufacturing sector that has grown from the ashes of our old heavy metal manufacturing.
Prof Martin will put his own unique stamp on the role.
But he will inherit a big vision.