Universities name their new leaders
Professor Emma Johnston appointed new University of Melbourne VC as South Australian mega university reveals leadership team.
Two of Australia’s biggest universities have announced leadership shake-ups this week.
Marine biologist, Emma Johnston, who once led the University of Melbourne student union, was named as its first female vice-chancellor; while in Adelaide, eight prominent university staff were named as deputy vice-chancellors for the new merged South Australian university.
Professor Johnston, a former dean of science at the University of NSW, whose research specialises in the human impacts on marine ecosystems, will take over from Duncan Maskell at the University of Melbourne in February 2025.
She said, as a sixth-generation Melburnian and a proud alumnus of the University of Melbourne, “I am excited to be coming home for the next chapter of an academic career, that in many ways spawned from my childhood curiosity in the wonders of Port Philip Bay”.
She gained both her undergraduate science degree and her PhD from the University of Melbourne. In a statement, the university said Professor Johnston was appointed after an extensive global search.
In Adelaide, co-vice-chancellors, Professor Peter Hoj and Professor David Lloyd, named the eight deputy vice-chancellors who would lead the transition and transformation of the South Australian university this week, and said they looked forward to “continuing our important work in creating a world-class contemporary and comprehensive institution and member of Australia’s prestigious and research-intensive Group of Eight”.
University of Adelaide law professor and provost John Williams was named deputy vice-chancellor, academic, while University of South Australia provost and chief academic officer Professor Joanne Cys will remain in the provost position for the merged university. The appointments followed a recruitment process conducted independently by Boyden Australia, and the deputy vice-chancellors will start their roles on October 1, 2024.
Adelaide University will begin operations on January 1, 2026.
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