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Welcoming the new Vice-Chancellor

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Matt Smith:

Welcome to a La Trobe University podcast. I would be your host Matt Smith. Today my guest is Professor John Dewar, the new Vice Chancellor of La Trobe University, a graduate of the University of Oxford, internationally known within his field of Family Law and an established background in university leadership at both Griffith University and the University of Melbourne. Thank you for joining me Professor Dewar.

John Dewar:

You're very welcome.

Matt Smith:

Now, firstly, how would you like to be addressed? You can have Professor Dewar, you can have Vice Chancellor, John Dewar, I think on your business card you have Grand Poobah these days if you'd like. How would you like to be addressed?

John Dewar:

How about John?

Matt Smith:

OK, John, we'll keep it at John.

John Dewar:

Good.

Matt Smith:

The first question is, what made you want to work in the area of Family Law?

John Dewar:

Well, when I studied law at university a long time ago, I studied Family Law as an elective subject and it was the first time I'd experienced in the law degree any sense of a connection with what real people might experience in the law and the legal system, in other words, it was a point of contact between the law and its workings and ordinary people, and I found that fascinating and that fascination has stayed with me and has influenced the work I've done as a researcher in the field, which has really been to try and understand how law, legal systems, legal reasoning, operates in a real world context.

Matt Smith:

You practised as well as being an academic researcher in that area, haven't you?

John Dewar:

Briefly. I worked for a couple of law firms, one in London, which was a big corporate firm where they did no family law at all and where I became an expert in Eurobond issues and other corporate matters. But then I went to work part time as a consultant for a much smaller firm that did a lot of family law work and acted as a sort of background advisor to the partners who were dealing with some very interesting cases, usually involving lots of money. I found that very enjoyable, and again it gave me that connection out from the university to a world of practice, and I found that incredibly valuable.

Matt Smith:

Why did you decide to concentrate on teaching that sort of thing and researching it, rather than practising it?

John Dewar:

That's a good question. I think I could have done either and in fact I very nearly went to the bar in London as a Family Law barrister, but in the end I thought it would be more stimulating to set my own agenda, to decide what were the things I was interested in rather than what the clients brought to you through the door. And I felt at the time, and still do, that there were lots of things that needed investigation and a better understanding and I thought I could better contribute to that as an academic writer and researcher than I could as a practitioner, and I haven't regretted it for a moment.

Matt Smith:

So what has been your area of research then, that you found the most interesting?

John Dewar:

For me, the most rewarding area of research I've done has been in the area of children who are caught up in divorce, and in particular how the Family Law system, in all its different manifestations, deals with those issues, and how does it support or mandate outcomes for children. To me, that's not only incredibly important, because of the people it affects, but just fascinating to see the way the different moving parts of the system interact to produce an outcome, some of which are the ones you'd hope for and expect, but a lot of them aren't. So for me, being a researcher in that field meant understanding better how the system produced its results and how it could be fixed when it wasn't producing the right ones.

Matt Smith:

So what you made you decide to leave the UK and come and work in universities in Australia?

John Dewar:

That's a good question. I came to Australia mainly because I was fascinated by what they were doing at Griffith University at the time. It was a brand new law school. I'd always wanted to be involved in the early stages of shaping and developing a new law school, and there weren't any new law schools being started up in the UK at the time, so the Griffith opportunity seemed like the right one. It just happened to be in Brisbane, on the other side of the world from where I was living at the time. So it seemed like a bit of an adventure and I thought I could always go back after two or three years if it didn't work out. What happened of course was that I fell in love with Australia and stayed at Griffith for close on fifteen years in different roles. It's never crossed my mind that I would go back. I'm now an Australian citizen, proudly such, support every Australian national team there is and will probably never return to live in the UK.

Matt Smith:

Really, so when the cricket's on, despite the fact that the English won the Ashes…

John Dewar:

I did not switch allegiance. I was an Aussie supporter through and through, absolutely.

Matt Smith:

Good man, good man. So how did you come to make a move into university leadership?

John Dewar:

Well, as I think a lot of people do, by feeling that the alternatives to my being a head of school or a dean or whatever it was at the time, were just worse than my doing it myself. I think a lot of people are motivated initially to get into it in that way. That was certainly true in my case. I was very happy being a researcher and would very happily have carried on doing that, but the opportunity came up when I was at Griffith to be Dean of the Law School and the alternative didn't seem particularly appetising, so I put my hand up. I found that I really enjoyed it, and after a while at Griffith I got the opportunity to work with Glyn Davis, who's now the Vice Chancellor at Melbourne, and he just transformed my understanding of what was possible as a university leader and just showed me how exciting and challenging it could be. So I guess from that point I was sort of hooked, and became a Pro Vice Chancellor at Griffith, working to Glyn, and then when Glyn left, became Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic, for quite a well and really enjoyed that as well.

Matt Smith:

What do you see as the role of Vice Chancellor and how do you think it will change with recent developments in higher education?

John Dewar:

I think the Vice Chancellor's job is extremely demanding. The Vice Chancellor's role is obviously to set the strategic agenda and direction for the university. A big part of the job is also managing all of those myriad of external relationships. Obviously it's not something that the Vice Chancellor does on his or her own, but the VC has to be the face ultimately of the university to government, to corporate partners, to non government organisations, to local councils, to all of those different people for whom the university is such an important institution, but also to be a leader of the staff in the institution, in whatever the strategic priorities are set out to be. That's obviously something I'm giving careful thought to now, but I'm looking forward very much to talking about that with staff, very soon.

Matt Smith:

Do you think that the role of the Vice Chancellor will change a lot this year with the deregulation?

John Dewar:

Not a lot. The environment is changing around us, it's certainly true. Deregulation means that we have to be much clearer than perhaps has been the case in the past, about why students would come to study at La Trobe. So we need to sharpen up both the image that we present to the outside world but also the value proposition we're offering students, to come and study with us. What is it about La Trobe that should be a compelling thing for students to want to come and study with us? So to that extent I think that will certainly contribute to the strategic mix that we'll have to develop quickly. Other than that though, I think the deregulation of Commonwealth supported places is just one of a range of things that are in flux at the moment in the sector. Vice Chancellors and all senior university leaders have to keep their antennae alert to all of those changes and make sure that the university is well positioned with respect to them. I think it's also important, though, for Vice Chancellors to lead and influence public policy in that environment. I don't think we should see ourselves as just victims of it, or as constantly reactive to it. I think it's really important that institutions, having set a clear strategic direction, are then able to influence the policy and funding environment around it. That's one of the things I've learnt during my time at the University of Melbourne, you know, which really struck out in a new direction and has been very successful in moulding policy and funding in support of that direction. I wish the sector would see its role in those terms more than simply reacting to what's thrown at it by government or regulators, or whatever. I'd want to play an important part in national debates about higher education policy and higher education funding, obviously with the interests of La Trobe and whatever strategic directions we set, very much at heart.

Matt Smith:

How would you describe your leadership style?

John Dewar:

First and foremost a very good listener. I'm good with people I think. I think people feel that they can talk to me and I'm able to develop good relationships of trust with people. I also think I'm very strategic. I think I can read an environment and quickly interpret its implications for an institution, and by the same token I think that I'm good at identifying what a strategic direction should be in a way that people will get behind. But I think it's important also that this is not just about me. This is about building a team of senior people and building a team of people around the university who are really committed to a set of particular set of values and goals for the institution and as much as anything, the role of a Vice Chancellor is to build that coalition that moves an institution in a particular direction.

Matt Smith:

So what motivates you, and what values will you bring to La Trobe University?

John Dewar:

I believe passionately in the power of universities to transform the communities around them. I experienced this in my own personal life when I was given the opportunity to study at Oxford as an undergraduate, as you've mentioned. That came my way because the university decided that it wanted to reach out to communities that hadn't previously been able to go to that university. I'd been in a state school which traditionally never sent anyone to Oxford or Cambridge. I was lucky enough to get in to study law at Oxford and benefited hugely from it – my life changed as a result. And since then I've been a passionate believer in that transformative power of education and higher education in particular. And in the mission of universities like La Trobe to reach out to communities that have traditionally not been able to participate in higher education. So for me, that aspect of the La Trobe mission is incredibly important and very powerful. But universities do a lot more than that of course – they create new knowledge in ways that can have a transformative effect, and I'm really excited by the AgriBio initiative at La Trobe for example, which is a wonderful example of how university researchers can work with other researchers on topics that are of central importance to the future of humanity, really. And then there's the community engagement – the ways in which universities can just enrich the lives of the communities that surround them, by throwing open its doors to people, encouraging them to come on to campus to experience the cultural and educational opportunities that it offers. I think that's something that we can do a lot more of. I think we've got enormous opportunities, particularly at Bundoora, to really integrate more closely into the local communities and really serve that North Melbourne in a very positive way. But those opportunities abound at the other campuses as well, and that's something that I'm going to be really interested to figure out more how we can do that.

Matt Smith:

When you aren't being the Vice Chancellor, what do you like to do?

John Dewar:

I'm a keen rower. I have been rowing…

Matt Smith:

We've got a nice moat around La Trobe if you want to get out there and do some…

John Dewar:

I noticed that. I gather that there's also a La Trobe running club that I'd be keen to know more about. But I've been a regular rower with Melbourne Uni Boat Club over the last two and a half years. So I'm planning to keep that going. It's just central to my sanity and physical health apart from anything else. I run occasionally. Those things are really important to me. It's just a way of keeping your mind at some distance from the hurly-burly of every day, but also keeping fit. I love listening to music and that will always be an important part of my day. And I'm just a great enthusiast for all things cultural, books, movies, plays, theatre…

Matt Smith:

What or who do you believe is your greatest influence?

John Dewar:

Well, I think I would have to name my previous boss, Professor Glyn Davis who is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, as the person from whom I've learned the most. Glyn is an outstanding leader. As I mentioned earlier, I worked with him all too briefly at Griffith, and then jumped at the opportunity to come and work with him at Melbourne. He's an outstanding leader and there hasn't been a day that's gone by that I've been working with him that I haven't learnt something from him. So he would be my number one influence, I would say.

Matt Smith:

Vice Chancellor John Dewar, may I be the first to welcome you on your first day at La Trobe and thank you very much for being interviewed for this podcast.

John Dewar:

Thank you very much, Matt. It's a real pleasure to be here and I'm looking forward to it.