Appointing a new Vice-Chancellor
The appointing committee
The University’s Board of Governors is responsible for appointing the University’s Vice-Chancellor.
An Appointing Committee will be formed comprising independent governors, the President of the Students’ Union and an academic staff member. An external academic will also be invited to join the Appointing Committee at the shortlisting stage of the process. While the decision of the Vice-Chancellor appointment is unequivocally that of the Board of Governors, the Board want to ensure active and meaningful consultation with staff and students throughout the process.
Search process
After discussions with a number of executive search firms we have appointed Perrett Laver to partner with us in identifying the best possible candidates worthy of leading the University’s onward journey. Perrett Laver will conduct an extensive search for candidates and there will be an advertisement which will appear during September.
Get involved in the selection process
Perrett Laver have been tasked with undertaking a broad consultation exercise with stakeholders and the broader staff and student communities.
Conversations with a range of staff and students, augmented by focus groups were used to ensure Perrett Laver developed a thorough understanding of the brief in context. Discussions included the skills and experience required of our next Vice-Chancellor and Middlesex’s opportunities and challenges.
The information gathered contributed to the drafting of the person specification and enabled Perrett Laver to act as authentic advocates for the institution for this key recruitment process.
Ways to engage
We invited colleagues to express views on the University’s priorities and the attributes of candidates for the role, in particular across the following areas:
- What is distinctive and special about Middlesex University?
- Does the University have a clear sense of what it would like to achieve in its next phase of development? What is the ambition?
- What do you perceive to be the key challenges in achieving this?
- How important is external representation in addition to internal leadership?
- What are the key characteristics you would like to find in the next Vice-Chancellor?
Staff and students are invited to send comments and any suggestions about potential candidates directly to mdx@perrettlaver.com
We will update this page with the results of the feedback from the stakeholder consultation and focus groups.
Timeline
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| July | Consultation and briefing meetings with stakeholders |
| Late August | Advertisements go live Research and candidate engagement phase commences |
| Early September | Research and candidate engagement continues |
| End September | Advertisement closes |
| October | Perrett Laver consultants interview long-listed candidates |
| End October | Shortlist review meeting with Appointing Committee |
| November | Shortlist interviews |
| December | Announcement |
Chair of the Board of Governors updates
The following emails have been sent to all staff throughout this process
Vice-Chancellor recruitment process and focus groups for staff - 11 July 2019
Vice-Chancellor recruitment process update - 23 September 2019
