Multi-Campus Viability Recovery Leader

The mandate

The vice-chancellor resigned after revised enrolment and attrition forecasts exposed a structural deficit larger than council papers had shown. Faculties carry overlapping low-demand programmes, four campuses duplicate support, and central restrictions are causing uncoordinated vacancy freezes that slow student decisions and research administration. Academic bodies distrust a purely financial turnaround. The interim takes institutional executive authority to restore viable choices while preserving senate, council, research and regulatory jurisdictions.

The appointment begins within four weeks and lasts fourteen months through two intake decisions, a budget year and selection of the permanent vice-chancellor. Search starts in month five after council settles the desired institutional model. The first six weeks establish student, programme, workforce and campus truth; months two through nine execute approved portfolio and service changes; the final phase proves the next intake, budget and student-support cycle before a structured overlap with the successor.

Handover is complete when the permanent leader has chaired one budget reforecast, one intake review and two council meetings using reconciled evidence; every approved programme and campus change has an accountable implementation path; and student-critical services meet published response standards. The successor inherits decision histories, consultation commitments, research dependencies, teach-out protections, workforce risks, campus economics and a three-year scenario model that separates reversible operating choices from council-reserved structural decisions.

The interim may set executive cadences, control non-academic vacancies, reallocate professional-service budgets, redesign administrative workflows and recommend programme or campus choices. Programme discontinuation, academic standards, redundancies, campus disposal, borrowing, executive dismissal, major collective commitments and spending above AUD10 million require the relevant senate, council or delegated approval. Deans retain academic leadership; ethics, research-integrity and accreditation bodies remain independent of turnaround targets.

Research strategy, curriculum content, academic grading, new international campuses and wholesale student-system replacement are outside scope. The interim will not manufacture savings through unsupported vacancy assumptions, count delayed work as eliminated demand, weaken teach-out obligations or redirect restricted research funds. Work concentrates on a viable existing institution, explicit service choices and governable execution; the independent review of past forecasts remains separate from executive recovery.

Why this seat is open

A leadership exit followed the discovery that intake weakness and cost commitments were not reconciling in council decisions. The university must protect students and make difficult portfolio choices before a credible permanent search can conclude. Council wants an executive who has governed educational recovery, understands collegial authority and can build enough trust that approved changes survive beyond the temporary appointment.

What you will own

• Reconcile applications, offers, enrolment, retention, programme cost, research dependency and student-service demand into one baseline.
• Decide immediate professional-service, vacancy and discretionary-spend controls within delegated authority and publish their service consequences.
• Frame programme and campus scenarios with teach-out, accreditation, workforce, community, research and cash implications.
• Reset executive, faculty and council reviews around named decisions, consultation gates and evidence that can be challenged.
• Protect student-critical timetables, accessibility, welfare, progression and research administration through approved change waves.
• Establish benefits evidence that distinguishes permanent demand removal from deferral, transfer and staff overload.
• Induct the permanent vice-chancellor through intake, reforecast and council cycles and transfer all unresolved commitments.

Candidate qualifications

• Has led a public university or comparable knowledge institution through material operating and portfolio recovery.
• Can evidence programme, campus or service choices made while respecting academic, regulatory and governing-body authorities.
• Understands enrolment funnels, retention, programme economics, research dependencies, student services and institutional workforce consultation.
• Has corrected unreliable forecast and benefit evidence without turning a university into a short-horizon cost programme.
• Can engage senate, faculty, students, unions, regulators and council through decisions that distribute loss unevenly.
• Has completed a fixed-term leadership handover after proving at least one intake and budget cycle.

Non-negotiables

• Can start in Melbourne within four weeks and rotate weekly through metropolitan and regional campuses.
• Will not encroach on academic standards, research integrity, ethics or independent investigation decisions.
• Brings accountable higher-education executive recovery; corporate restructuring advice alone is insufficient.
• Will disclose service, workforce and student consequences alongside every proposed financial benefit.

1. 49 words maximum. Which university viability measure did you stop trusting, and what student or programme evidence changed the plan?
2. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest Melbourne start date and the governing authorities you have worked across.
3. 49 words maximum. Describe one programme or campus choice you led while protecting teach-out and research dependencies.