The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
RSS feeds: v0.91; v1.0 (RDF); v2.0; Atom.
7:53am on Thursday, 23rd May, 2024:
Anecdote
Having failed to install a new Vice Chancellor, Essex University has appointed an Acting Vice Chancellor from among its ranks. Here's how the University Registrar announced it:
"I am pleased to be able to confirm that Professor Maria Fasli has been appointed by Council as the University's Acting Vice-Chancellor. Professor Fasli will take up the role from 1 August 2024, and has been appointed for a 12-month period.
Maria studied for her PhD at Essex, commencing in 1996, and was appointed to the staff of the University in 1999. She progressed to gain professorial title in 2012. She was Head of the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering between 2009 and 2014, the founding Director of the Institute of Analytics and Data Science between 2014 and 2019, at which point she was appointed as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Health. Maria continues to serve as Director of the ESRC Business and Local Government Data Research Centre, a role she took on in 2018. Externally, since 2016 Maria has held the title of UNESCO Chair in Analytics and Data Science. She will bring this wealth of education, research, and leadership experience to the role of Acting Vice-Chancellor."
So basically, our new acting VC is the former Head of School for Computer Science and Electronic Engineering. Better still, her area of expertise is Artificial Intelligence. Given how much the rest of the university is at best unconcerned with the travails of CSEE, this is something of a coup. We might actually get listened to now, rather than being treated as a cash cow.
That said, there are two kinds of Head of School. One kind represents the department to the university's upper management; the other kind represents the university's upper management to the department. Our current HoS is the former, but Maria was the latter. I therefore expect her to be even-handed rather than partisan; indeed, she probably wouldn't have been appointed AVC if she wasn't. At least she understands our problems, though, which is more than previous VCs ever did.
I don't know why she didn't apply for the VC post itself; I was expecting her to do so. It'll be interesting to see what she does when her year in office is up.
Latest entries.
Archived entries.
About this blog.
Copyright © 2024 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).