University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell to leave next year

University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell unexpectedly announced his departure early next year from the $1.2m a year job.

Duncan Maskell has led the University of Melbourne since 2018. Picture: Mark Stewart

University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell unexpectedly announced his resignation on Monday, saying that he will leave the $1.2 million a year job early next year.

Professor Maskell, who has led Australia’s most highly ranked university since 2018 and steered it through the pandemic, said it had “been an honour to be the custodian of Australia’s top university through such extraordinary times”.

“I am proud of everyone in the university community who has worked together to ensure that the University of Melbourne remains one of the world’s great universities,” he said in a statement.

“I still have a lot to achieve this year and I look forward to working with the chancellor and my colleagues to deliver on the university’s strategic agenda.”

Professor Maskell, a working class son of a plumber and an expert in infectious diseases whose previous job was as senior pro vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, began his second five-year term as vice-chancellor at Melbourne only last October.

He told The Australian on Monday that he had reflected on his future when visiting family in the UK over the Australian summer. He said he would turn 63 in May and was attracted by the thought of retirement, of having more freedom, and seeing his family in the UK more often.

“I don’t want another big job like this. It’s not the right time of life,” Professor Maskell said.

He said seven years was about the right period for one person to lead a university and he would be staying nearly six and a half years.

The university’s chancellor, Jane Hansen, said Professor Maskell had led the university through one of its most challenging periods.

“Not only did Professor Maskell ensure that the university survived, but he has ensured that it has continued to advance its teaching and research excellence and enhance its world-class reputation” she said.

Professor Maskell said he was proud of many initiatives of his vice-chancellorship including the decision to spend $65m a year on the Narrm scholarship program for students from indigenous and low socio-economic backgrounds, the university’s new indigenous strategy and improvements in the university’s handling of sexual misconduct cases.

He said Australia’s largest philanthropic gift to medical research – $250m from Canadian philanthropist Geoff Cumming – in 2022 to establish a pandemic therapeutics research centre was a highlight of his period as vice-chancellor, as was his success in setting up a system for end-to-end funding of research commercialisation at the university.

Professor Maskell said that although he was not a fan of university rankings, it was an achievement for the University of Melbourne to reach 14th in the world last year in the QS World University Rankings.