Open University new Vice Chancellor

The Open University is now looking for a new Vice Chancellor.  The OU branch of UCU believes that the OU Council and Senate should remember its past difficulties at the same time as it builds a bright and confident future.   

We want the Open University person specification to include the following statement.

Our new Vice Chancellor is someone who will:

• Be an experienced and respected academic ready to step into a major leadership role
• Work well in Whitehall, Westminster and across the four nations to promote the OU
• Wholeheartedly support the OU’s mission statement
• See the university first and foremost as a public institution for learning, research and the development of critical knowledge
• Love our students and consider Higher Education a fundamental right for all
• Always seek respectful relations with all employees
• Regard the OU’s trade unions as positive partners and model good industrial relations
• Work to re-democratise the OU and to build bridges and consensus between and among students, academics, Associate Lecturers, support staff, senior management and Council
• Consider education to be a common good, and universities as places for social justice
• Steadfastly oppose all forms of discrimination and social inequality.

This is the basis for what we hope to see in any good candidate for the post of the new Vice Chanceller of the Open University.