policy & reform campusreview . com . au arrangements that are available to UK students . And that has meant that we ’ ve seen a 70 per cent reduction across the UK of students from the EU coming to UK universities .
That ’ s been a pretty similar picture at the University of Essex as well . That ’ s been painful in so many , many different ways , given the way in which our EU students enrich the lives of the campuses and the experience that we can offer .
Do you think UK universities are well placed for the new competitive environment for international student recruitment ? Will the UK do well out of this , maybe at the expense of places like Australia ? I think the UK has a really strong brand . UK universities offer a really great educational experience and undergraduate masters and PhD levels . Historically , the UK has some fabulous links into countries across the world and a really strong record in recruiting international students . So there ’ s a very strong base to build on .
Recently we ’ ve had changes in the restrictions that relate to international students who graduate in UK universities , so that they ’ re now allowed to stay on after graduation for up to two years . Poststudy work visa changes have been really important in signalling to international students if they come to the UK , they study here , there ’ s an opportunity also to stay on and to work . And for us , that ’ s been an absolute game changer in making the UK a very competitive and an exciting destination for international students .
We ’ re really embracing a whole range of different types of degrees : more joint degrees with international universities , more hybrid degrees with international universities . And that too is an exciting new development that is opening up new markets and developing types of cooperation that perhaps we didn ’ t see prior to the pandemic .
We ’ ve got a specific challenge around the European Union . The UK ’ s departure from the EU has been very significant . All UK universities are trying to rethink the relationships that we have with EU universities and the way in which we recruit EU students .
We were one of only three UK universities to be part of the European Commission ’ s European University initiative . We ’ re a member of The Young Universities for the Future of Europe Alliance . And we ’ re one of a group of 10 universities that are really thinking through deeper levels of cooperation , particularly around staff and student mobility and joint degree programs and the sharing of both academic and professional services staff in ways that we ’ ve never done before . That ’ s going to be an absolute game changer for us in building new relationships .
I imagine you must have embraced online education in a big way from March 2020 . Has that left enduring change in your models of education ? And if so , have you started to see any changes in business model and strategy caused by the embracing of technology ? We ’ ve had a University of Essex online degree platform running with our partner Kaplan for over a decade now . We have about 3000 students that are registered for a variety of different courses , and we have seen that scale up in the last 18 months in very exciting ways . We are driving a whole range of new product innovations , new degrees that we ’ re offering through the wholly online platform .
On our three campuses we ’ ve tried to really think about the pandemic in terms of the positive developments we would like to continue to embrace . An example would be flexibility in start dates : we predominantly recruited our students in October of each academic year and that was it . We ’ ve now got flexible start dates and flexible entry points in a way that has opened up some really exciting prospects for us in a variety of different degree programs , and different markets across the world .
We ’ re giving a lot of serious thought to integrating the very best of technology into our face to face , in-person degree courses . The pandemic has forced us to have in effect a step change in the way in which we ’ ve been using technology . We want to make sure we don ’ t lose some of the very best positive outcomes that technology has offered us in thinking about course and curriculum design .
We are really giving some serious thought to personalised learning . What does that look like in a post-COVID 21st Century ? And that ’ s very challenging for us , but something that we want to try and embrace and really think through .
We are pushing very hard on product development . We ’ ve seen an absolute explosion of innovation over the last two years , and we want to make sure that we don ’ t lose sight of that exciting innovation
The pandemic has highlighted how important authentic values-based inclusive leadership is .
and the pace at which we ’ ve been moving , which is I think probably quite striking from the level of initiatives and the pace with which we were moving prior to March 2020 .
How has recovering from the pandemic made enduring changes in the way you operate and will operate in the future ? I think the pandemic has highlighted how important authentic values-based inclusive leadership is . I think we ’ ve needed different styles of leadership over the last 18 months or so . And I don ’ t think we are going to revert back to leadership styles that predominated to the spring of 2020 .
We are trying to challenge ourselves on the issue of what it means to be a really good employer . Wellbeing has come to the fore quite rightly in a variety of different ways , whether it ’ s mental health challenges , or perhaps work-life balance , and we really want to make sure we don ’ t lose that people focus that came to the fore throughout the pandemic .
I think more and more it ’ s not just what universities do , but how they do it that is going to be very important to staff and students . We want to hold onto that thought to make sure we are a university of choice , not just for our students , but also for our staff .
Are you enjoying being a vice chancellor ? Are you having fun ? I am . The last 18 months have been really tough for everybody . There ’ s no doubt about that . But particularly for everybody in leadership roles where we ’ re responsible not just for ourselves , but actually for our community at large . I don ’ t think there ’ s any getting away from that .
But it ’ s also true for me that being a vice chancellor at an English university is absolutely the best job in the world . It allows me to lead in creating circumstances that allow our colleagues to be their very best . And that ’ s noble work . I can ’ t think of any other job that would give quite this level of challenge , but also quite this level of reward as well . ■
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