By Jordan Baker
Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence will step down in December to become head of the prestigious University College London, sparking an international hunt for his replacement.
Dr Spence has led the nation's oldest university for 12 years, presiding over its significant growth in size and influence, as well as a $1 billion philanthropy push.
Dr Michael Spence is departing Sydney University at the end of the year. Credit: Nick Moir
But his final year is likely to be the most challenging, as a ban on travel from China due to the coronavirus threatens to force thousands of the university's full fee-paying Chinese students to defer or seek other options.
University College London (UCL) is renowned for its research, especially in health. It was 15th in the Times Higher Education world university rankings, while Sydney University ranked 42nd.
Dr Spence said he was first approached by a headhunter last August, but the decision to leave Sydney was difficult. He has spent 20 years at the university, as a student, a "level B lecturer" and as vice-chancellor.
"I'm deeply loyal to this place and I really believe in what we've been doing and the direction it's going," he said. "There's some exciting things afoot. So there were no push factors, only pull factors.
"The UCL is just a phenomenal institution. 29 Nobel prize winners. The top performing university in the British government's last research exercise ... I just thought it would be a terrific place to have the opportunity to lead. There aren't many jobs in the world in which I would be interested, but this was one of them."
Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson described Dr Spence's legacy as outstanding. "Under Michael's leadership the University of Sydney has grown in size and stature and has undertaken a significant modernisation program," she said.
"The university is in a strong position to address the immediate and longer term challenges the coming decade will inevitably represent."
Australia is a direct competitor with Britain for international students, and faces the prospect of giving up ground because of the coronavirus travel ban.
Sydney University could lose hundreds of millions of dollars if the travel ban from China is not lifted by the end of March, when it will no longer be viable for many of the students stranded offshore to study their courses online.
"We are confident that the coronavirus is being well handled both at university and externally," Dr Spence said.
At UCL, almost half of the 41,000 students are international, some of them from Australia. The biggest source countries are China and Hong Kong.
Dr Spence's announcement also came as the student union board decided to close one of the university institutions, Manning Bar, to day trading. The rundown bar launched the careers of some of Australia's best-known comedians and bands.
He said one of the university's challenges was to build a sense of belonging and community. But the loss of Manning Bar was not a threat to that sense of community.
"The truth is we have much nicer spaces to go than Manning, now," he said.
The president of the Sydney University SRC Liam Donohoe said most students "couldn't even identify [the vice-chancellor] if he was walking down the street. That's no shame to Michael Spence - it's the disengaged reality for students.
"Among the politically engaged students it's massive, it's a paradigm shift," he said.
Many of those students were still upset by restructures and changes to campus life that occurred under Dr Spence's stewardship. "I think it would be remiss to not note the fact that the past 12 years have not been great for student life or student activism," he said.