Higher education 30 most influential 2016

Check out our annual list of the most influential people in higher education.

Supplied Editorial Fwd: Does this work better for a Glyn pic?

Welcome to our annual list of most influential people in higher education.

The University of Melbourne’s Glyn Davis, now the country’s longest-serving vice-chancellor, heads the list. Not because he’s prevailed where others haven’t. Not just because he’s still here. But because Davis is the epitome of influence over power. A man of ideas, Davis’s raison d’etre is conceiving the impossible dream and taking everyone along on the journey to achieve it. Behind the scenes, his influence in unequalled because anyone as intelligent and considered as Davis can only be ignored by a fool.

Davis follows former education minister Christopher Pyne at the top of our previous list. Pyne this year has dropped to number 9 — a robust position given the still-unresolved fate of his higher education reform package.

This year we’ve taken a more edited approach — 30 rather than 50. Why? Fifty is too unwieldily, the placements too nebulous to withstand scrutiny.

That means we apologise to the 20 or more people who would have been on the list, but aren’t.

And, of course, the entire list is open for debate. There are plenty of figures who yield huge power and influence, particularly in the public service, who aren’t on the list, largely because they have little or no public profile bar dreaded Senate Estimates hearings.

In the same vein there are individuals who have made a list because their very public personas give an inflated estimate of their actual influence.

We don’t know what 2016 holds in store. Will we actually get a year of relative calm after two years of upheaval as the political parties position themselves for the next election? Or will the government grab the bull by the horns and make a last-ditch attempt at deregulation — or what is now called “fee flexibility”.

Hang on to your hats!