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VC ’ s corner
We wanted to put values at the heart of all that we did . And that is , I think , one of the things that makes us distinctive : Griffith is a values-driven university . We wanted to have a series of commitments around the composition of our student body , about our commitment to sustainable development , about our commitment to equality and to social justice .
On the infrastructure front , we wanted to have an ambitious capital and digital infrastructure plan , which we ’ ve done . One of the things we decided was to close our Mt Gravatt campus over the next five years and move to having a vertical campus in the city to enable students from relevant disciplines to more easily and frequently connect with employers .
What you are most pleased about achieving so far ? One of our six pillars was unleashing the potential of our people . And we really have seen staff achieve extraordinary things . Unfortunately , we all got a really strong , real-time lesson in leadership in times of crisis . But we tried to do a lot of wrapping around with that , so for example , providing coaching and assistance and support to all of our heads of school and to our director level folk , to make sure they were ready to face the challenges at the time .
I am pleased at the way in which we are starting to see really ambitious and confident plans come out of Griffith . We ’ ve seen a large philanthropic set of donations , for example , from the Paul Ramsay Foundation around some terrific work that ’ s being done with Victoria University about transitions for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds , and also a really great program by our criminologists around parents in prison .
For the first time we ’ ve got a digital master plan to match our capital master plan . We ’ ve already got a fabulous new building designed for the Nathan campus , where the folk from Mt Gravatt will come across , which is really exciting , engaging and sustainable . And we are undertaking a series of refurbishments that are really bringing the sciences to life at Nathan .
What would you describe the culture at Griffith as being like , and what makes it distinctive ? What really struck me coming to Griffith was how strong and real the sense of values , and particularly around inclusion , were at Griffith . It has a long and deep commitment to creating pathways for bright people who might not have always trod the traditional path into higher education .
Our campus in Logan is where a lot of people come to higher education as mature age students . We ’ ve got a lot of mums with kids who are studying to be teachers or midwives , often the first in family . We ’ ve got a big Pacifika community , quite a number of refugee students , we ’ ve got one of the highest numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the country . And that means a lot at Griffith . It ’ s not something that ’ s accidental , it ’ s not something that we tolerate ; staff and students are really committed to it .
You recently completed a whole of institution staff engagement survey . Can you give us a snapshot of the headline outcomes ? Like many universities , indeed institutions more widely , we are trying to make sure we ’ re listening to our staff . We did a series of pulse surveys during 2020 . We definitely saw that staff morale was impacted quite severely across 2020 , particularly as we had to do restructuring . And then , towards the middle of 2021 , we did do a whole of staff survey through Voice , which is used by many Australian and New Zealand universities , so you get some good benchmarking .
We were pleased that staff had remained pretty strongly engaged and committed to the institution , and still satisfied with the leadership , which was a relief . Staff were 8 per cent higher than sector benchmarks in believing that we lived our values . If we can do that in the middle of a crisis , and if staff can still believe that after we ’ ve had to make the toughest decisions that an institution has to make about restructuring and staff losses only six months earlier , I think it does show that those values run deep .
At the moment we are working through a really clear , detailed plan to try and address the issues that staff raised with us that need improvement .
What are some of the steps in that plan ? Of course , listening to what your staff have to say and trying to make their
We wanted to put values at the heart of all that we did .
working life better should underpin any good strategy , because if your staff are disaffected or feel the institution isn ’ t listening to them , particularly in these times , they can vote with their feet and go elsewhere .
There were a couple of areas that showed up as staff wanting more done . They didn ’ t like our recruitment practices , so we ’ re putting more resources into that . It had just been too slow , too bureaucratic and complex . They thought our processes generally were slow and bureaucratic and complex , and we ’ ve been doing a lot of work on that .
They wanted more career development and they wanted more learning in development . Personally , I thought that was great . It meant that they were actually invested and they wanted to do better and do their jobs better and have opportunities , that ’ s a really good set of negative feedback in some ways .
Are you enjoying the challenge of being vice chancellor at Griffith right now ? I am . It ’ s an honour to have a role like this . It ’ s a pleasure to work with such wonderful colleagues , to feel that you ’ re making a difference in the lives of students who have sometimes been dealt a fairly rough hand by life up until now .
I ’ d be kidding if I didn ’ t say there were difficulties , that there were some dark days and dark weeks , and there will probably be some to come . You really would love to be able to protect your staff more . I just know how hard it has been for people , how much work and struggle and difficulty there ’ s been . But I do actually think that one of my roles , and one of the roles of vice chancellors generally , is to help people understand that there is a tomorrow and that tomorrow can be brighter and we can do things now that make that more likely to happen .
That ’ s not to be disrespectful of the really serious struggles some of them have , but it ’ s not just good for the institution , it ’ s good for individuals as well to believe that there can be a better future for all , and that we can all have a role in creating it . ■
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