25 February 2011

In Praise of Ian Chubb

| johnboy
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ANU has posted posted the speech given by their Chancellor Gareth Evans to the farewell dinner of long serving Vice-Chancellor Ian Chubb.

Here were the highlights of achievement:

Let me count the ways in which Ian Chubb’s leadership has been so special. He has consolidated our position as Australia’s No 1 university, and unequivocally our top research university, as confirmed by the recent ERA results (notwithstanding some breathtakingly cheeky claims from a certain competitor to our south).

He has created an unparalleled environment for teaching and learning, by restructuring the whole university to better harness and integrate our traditional research grunt into undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and creating a residential environment on the campus which is second to none among Australia’s major universities.

He has managed that incredibly complex and sensitive change process, in an environment not exactly light on for highly charged personalities, in a way that has maintained an extraordinary degree of harmony, stability and productivity. Some of this has certainly been a triumph of substance over form, producing organization charts that have been known to make grown men weep (not to mention orderly minded Chancellors) – but throughout the governing philosophy has been, not unreasonably, that of Deng Xiao Peng’s cat. As Mao’s successor once famously said, you will remember, of the feline in question: “it doesn’t matter whether it’s black or white, it’s whether it catches the mouse”.

And he has led the University through an unprecedented rebuilding period, transforming the University’s physical face to at least as great an extent as its organizational face, and doing so primarily through winning an incredible degree of capital commitment for our national institution-building from the Commonwealth Government, as well as maintaining and extending, in a fiercely competitive environment, the government’s research funding contribution. As Michael Delaney said to Council last year, putting together these parts of Ian Chubb’s achievement as Vice-Chancellor into words better than anyone else, he has over the course of a decade “re-energised, re-philosophised, recapitalized and rebuilt” the whole university.

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creative_canberran said :

astrojax said :

New Yeah said :

When studying at ANU during the height of the Howard government’s cuts to higher education during the mid to late 90s, I did not imagine the ANU would grow to the size it has. Chubb certainly managed to do quite a few things right.

and some things wrong – there are myriad excellent, globally lauded professors who have left – or even been deliberately sent on their way – through fatboy’s ineptitude and professional jealousy getting the better of his ‘vision’. can’t go soon enough for mine.

who will be the new vc, do we know?

Speaking with some inside knowledge, it’s the head of the individual faculties and schools who decide on staffing for the most part. And you are correct in that some teaching staff have been deliberately targeted and moved on. It got particularly bad last year when a new head of the Social Sciences started openly combatting staff who returned fire in public.

and a few years back when srinivarsan, snyder and another frs all left [were pushed away, it might be said] in the same year…

eq2 said :

http://www.anulss.com/peppercorn

Thanks! I had no idea.

creative_canberran1:43 am 26 Feb 11

astrojax said :

New Yeah said :

When studying at ANU during the height of the Howard government’s cuts to higher education during the mid to late 90s, I did not imagine the ANU would grow to the size it has. Chubb certainly managed to do quite a few things right.

and some things wrong – there are myriad excellent, globally lauded professors who have left – or even been deliberately sent on their way – through fatboy’s ineptitude and professional jealousy getting the better of his ‘vision’. can’t go soon enough for mine.

who will be the new vc, do we know?

Speaking with some inside knowledge, it’s the head of the individual faculties and schools who decide on staffing for the most part. And you are correct in that some teaching staff have been deliberately targeted and moved on. It got particularly bad last year when a new head of the Social Sciences started openly combatting staff who returned fire in public.

M Rose said :

If you’re on the ANU campus try find yourself a copy of Peppercorn (Law students mag.) there’s a great article on Young’s approach to Swinburne in this edition.

Do you really still have to find a paper copy nowadays? I’d have thought uni students would be amongst the first to make their fishwrap available over the web.

astrojax said :

New Yeah said :

who will be the new vc, do we know?

Another Ian, former Swinburne VC Prof. Ian Young.

Considering what he did for Swinburne it’s a mixed blessing. He really brought Swinburne out of the doldrums, but at the same time took a similar approach to undergraduate education and reputation as Chubb has.

If you’re on the ANU campus try find yourself a copy of Peppercorn (Law students mag.) there’s a great article on Young’s approach to Swinburne in this edition.

New Yeah said :

When studying at ANU during the height of the Howard government’s cuts to higher education during the mid to late 90s, I did not imagine the ANU would grow to the size it has. Chubb certainly managed to do quite a few things right.

and some things wrong – there are myriad excellent, globally lauded professors who have left – or even been deliberately sent on their way – through fatboy’s ineptitude and professional jealousy getting the better of his ‘vision’. can’t go soon enough for mine.

who will be the new vc, do we know?

When studying at ANU during the height of the Howard government’s cuts to higher education during the mid to late 90s, I did not imagine the ANU would grow to the size it has. Chubb certainly managed to do quite a few things right.

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