Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- List of Figures
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- PART ONE
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER TWO A new structure, a new language and a new Vice-Chancellor
- CHAPTER THREE The academic community and its environment
- CHAPTER FOUR The University in its local, national and international contexts
- CHAPTER FIVE Ten turbulent years
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
CHAPTER TWO - A new structure, a new language and a new Vice-Chancellor
from PART TWO
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- List of Figures
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- PART ONE
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER TWO A new structure, a new language and a new Vice-Chancellor
- CHAPTER THREE The academic community and its environment
- CHAPTER FOUR The University in its local, national and international contexts
- CHAPTER FIVE Ten turbulent years
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Within the universities some means must be found of overcoming the awesome resistance to change.
(Michael Allen, The Goals of Universities)When someone as important as a Vice-Chancellor dies suddenly in office, the period of mourning has to be coupled with swift action to find someone to take on his responsibilities as soon as possible. Within hours of Robert Whelan's death, an emergency meeting of senior officers took place in the Vice-Chancellor's Conference Room in Senate House. The Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Frank Harris, the Registrar, Bob Nind, and those lay officers who were available agreed to set up a Joint Committee as provided for under the University's Statutes, and to proceed with urgency to appoint an Acting Vice-Chancellor. It took them only 13 days. From the two names under consideration they chose an able administrator, a reformer, and a man trusted and admired. Professor J. F. Norbury, known to everyone as ‘Fred’, had spent almost his entire academic career in the University, from entering as a student of mechanical engineering in 1943 to holding the Harrison Chair of Mechanical Engineering from 1966. From 1977 to 1980 he was a Pro-Vice-Chancellor during Robert Whelan's first three years in office.
The interregnum over which Fred Norbury presided witnessed major changes affecting almost every aspect of university life. He made it clear to the lay officers that he was not prepared just to be a caretaker: too many issues required attention, and he was determined to deal with them.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Decade of ChangeThe University of Liverpool 1981-1991, pp. 31 - 57Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1994