Four months into one of the most challenging higher education jobs in Australia, we checked in with Nicola Phillips and found an HE leader feeling out new templates to thrive.
It’s a huge job. You inherit the mixed game plan dreamed up by two long-established VCs in Adelaide society and sector hierarchy. A business plan dreamed up to bring tens of thousands of international students to the newly merged institution, only to be handed effective caps on student numbers, in line with the rest of the country. A refreshed curriculum you have not defined, a brand you luckily happen to like (she loves purple, and the tagline is so closely aligned to Nicola Phillips’ philosophy and worldview that she repeats by accident rather than reciting a brand mantra in the second answer of the interview) and the scrutiny of a State that is not over-used to outsiders. (South Australia’s famously low net population growth rate is only of the reasons the uni merger got the numbers).
Despite the challenges, there are clear signs that the selection panel seem to have landed the perfect leader for the job.
This is not about the numbers (enrolments are not as strong as were hoped), systems (the university was impacted by a global outage of Canvas; and earlier in the year enrolling students was a real challenge) and as she firmly but sunnily conveys mid interview, it is not about the metrics she inherited.
A 10 year plan is being developed despite the almost unprecedented turbulence in sector regulation and dynamics, because that is how long it is going to take to bed down the merger, she indicates. At least.
The measures defined as a rationale to establish the institution, and the challenges the institution faces in terms of enrolment rankings and so on are critical scene setting for the commencement of Professor Phillips’ Vice-Chancellorship, but she has moved quickly beyond them, as the regulatory and operating environment for the university has changed drastically since the merger was originally mooted.
Following the merger process, the offices of the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor are currently located in an off-campus administration building, but she is anxious to move to somewhere rooted on campus, so she can engage staff one on one or in groups as she moves about her day. Listening, happy to respond, but with a humility and unshakeable focus on a bigger vision that is a hallmark of the new breed of HE leaders willing (and with a chance of succeeding) to take on the challenge of healing the fracture between community and college.
There are a number of interesting points. She is embracing differentiation, but as an uber comprehensive institution – heeding Education Minister Jason Clare’s call for differentiation, but putting her own stamp on it.
Professor Phillips is aiming at a new type of institution. One that views the close relationship and funding of the State Government as a chance for collaboration rather than a threat to control. One that seeks excellence and rankings status, but only as a result of delivering changes that the community wants.
As one of the largest employers in the State and the result of a big bet by the Malinauskas Government, handed literally impossible international enrolment targets and forecasts of international rankings likely to decline across the country, the pressure seems immense. It is only by being precisely herself, avoiding hubris and preaching a different, community-integrated collaborative approach that there is a chance of working.
In this mix the working-class roots and low ATAR access points within UniSA have become a critical strength, rather than a weakness. Paired with the high-end research credentials and infrastructure and blue-blood heritage of the former University of Adelaide, the new institution has an opportunity to try to mix equity and excellence – and in the process engage and attract more interest from prospective students around kitchen tables in Elizabeth as well as Unley Park.
It is this process of reimagining the university not as a standalone entity, but a borderless, collaborative enabler partnering with industry, government and community that gives the university a chance of not just attracting the fondness of the locals, but also serving the Federal Government’s vision of equity and distinctive institutional character as well as any in the country.
There are plenty of ifs. There are 11,000 or so staff to get on board with the new direction. Student numbers will be under pressure to grow, both domestically and at least filling international visa allocations, to keep baseline revenue coming in. There is a copious amount of North Terrace real estate to play with and more significantly pay for. And without adequate funding, it will be extremely difficult to move the dial on equity enrolment in line with the vision. Then there is the mix of nerves, apathy, fear and overexuberance that can come with any institution, let alone a newly-merged one.
But there is also a template emerging which will be of great interest in the West – the possibility of re-shaping post school education not under the thumb of government, but rather under a shared collaborative purpose.