Apologies it has been a while since I updated this blog, but as this is such a significant week in the history of Edge Hill University, I thought it was apt to do so now.
After 30 years at the helm JC is heading off to spend more time with family and on the golf course. John’s achievements are many and have been well documented over the past few months. I doubt the University will ever leave John’s life completely. I’m sure he is like a stick of rock and if you cut him in half, he would have Edge Hill written through the middle.
Whilst it is always sad when such a long serving colleague goes, it is also a very exciting time for the University as move into a new era and I am delighted that it will be Lynda leading us for this interim period.
All this has meant that it has been a busy year for the Board of Governors. Whilst none of us knew the point at which John would announce his retirement it made sense to have plans in place in advance ready for when he did. A subcommittee of Governors had been working on this for a while and this enabled the complex process of recruiting a replacement to be put into place swiftly and effectively.
I am in awe of the amount of work that this has taken from colleagues on the Board and am pleased to be able to play a small part in the process. It was great to see so many people attend the briefing sessions that were hosted by the Chair of the Board (Clive Elliott). There were lots of discussions and questions raised at these sessions. It was interesting to see that different areas had different priorities in what they wanted from a new VC. However, there was one common view; that the ethos of the University was one of the most important considerations. Hopefully colleagues have been able to see some of their other thoughts reflected in the application pack that was produced following these sessions and other stakeholder engagement opportunities.
Whilst John’s replacement has taken up quite some time, there is still a University to run, and the Board has also had to continue with business as usual.
Board meetings over the past year have been full and busy. We have welcomed some new independent governors. Joining the wealth of experience of our established Board members, we now have expertise from senior leadership in HE, public relations, IT and Cyber security, accountancy and organisation management. These Governors were recruited with specific skillsets in mind and to further enhance the thinking and decisioning of the Board. Having such a varied amount of knowledge around the table is always beneficial and interesting during discussions and decisions impacting the University.
The Board Of Governors Website gives a really good insight into all the members of the Board including their areas of expertise and backgrounds.
The website also shows the minutes of each meeting. If you want to take a read, they will give you even more insight into the volume of work we do. This blog would be very boring if I covered everything so I thought I would touch on just a couple of the issues we have looked at this year.
There has been a considerable amount of discussion at the Board regarding last year’s disappointing NSS scores. We have received several updates on the considerable amount of work that is going into improving this and the Board is extremely appreciative of colleagues involved in this work.
One of the biggest tasks for the Board over the past year (and this year) is to work on the 2026-2030 University Strategy. This has involved us working with the Directorate team through discussion and interactive workshops to establish the direction of the University over the next 5 years. This involved establishing the strengths of the University (of which there are many) and areas that we would like to develop moving forward. More recently we addressed what the priorities of the University need to be and the challenges we might face. Some things are always clear in these discussions and that is the ethos of EHU is one of its strongest points and every member of the Board of Governors is proud both to be part of such a positive institution and of the entire workforce that make this possible.
In December, I had the opportunity to attend an Advance HE conference in Birmingham. The title was Governing with Humanity. This was a riveting event, and I got to chat to delegates from governing bodies across the world. I was particularly interested in hearing about the set up and processes of other universities with regards to their Board. I came away with some ideas that I have fed forward to my Board colleagues. However, I was reassured to realise that our Board already follows many of the recommendations that came out of the day. To some other institutions the involvement of staff and students in the Board is not always given the consideration it deserves, and the relationships between the Boards and the Senior Executive can at times be strained. From my observations of our Board, students and staff are listened to and are at the heart of all decisions. The relationship with the Executive is that of mutual respect and shared passion for the success of the University.
I just want to end this blog with some personal memories of John.
I joined Edge Hill University in the year 2000 as a WP student. At the end of my first year, I got an admin job that required me to occasionally work with senior members of the Executive team. I was always welcomed into their office and despite only being a grade 2 admin I left feeling like an equal. John seems to know everybody’s name and will always greet you with a smile and a pleasant comment.
I graduated in 2003 at a ceremony at Lancaster University (us oldies had to trek up there to do this). Princess Alexandra resided over my ceremony and each graduand had to present John with their name card for him to read out. I was extremely proud when he didn’t take my name card but knew my name. However, I was soon put in place by my mum, who commented later “the headmaster always knew your name for the wrong reasons.”
So, from me, thank you John for having such a positive influence on me, my education and my career.
To Lynda I look forward to working under your leadership and as part of the Board over the interim few months.