Professor Alan Gilbert, born in Brisbane on 11 September 1944, once a historian is now President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester.

He is well know for his controversial views on private funding of universities, and for the ambitious but financially disastrous formation of Melbourne University Private Limited, a private off_shoot of Melbourne University.

Early academic career

Graduated with a first class BA at the Australian National University in 1965, then took an MA in history and took a post as as lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1967. He gained a scholarship at Nuffield College, Oxford and he was awarded a DPhil in 1973.

He returned to Australia as a lecturer at the University of New South Wales where he established an academic reputation as an historian working in the social, socio-economic and religious history of modern Britain and Australia. He was appointed Professor of History in the Faculty of Military Studies in 1981. He was election as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 1990.

Developing an aptitude an inclination towards academic management he became Chair of the Faculty of Military Studies in 1982, and later Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University New South Wales (1988-1990). In 1991 he became Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Tasmania at the time of the merger of the University with the Launceston CAE.

University of Melbourne

In 1996 Gilbert was appointed Vice-Chancellor of The University of Melbourne. He played the key role in establishing and subsequently developing Melbourne University Private Limited, a private university established to work alongside with the University of Melbourne, so as to circumvent regulations strictly limiting the money-making educational ventures of australian universities. The venture was a financial disaster and was widely criticised by academics, politicians and the media. To rescue MUPL, the University Council borrowed $150 million from the National Australia Bank and agreed to provide additional money from its investment reserves.

'Melbourne University Private was "a lemon" that was a draining public funds from The University of Melbourne, former premier John Cain told a Senate inquiry yesterday'

Cain attacks 'tainted' private university, by David Rood, Higher Education Reporter, August 20, 2004

University of Manchester

Gilbert left the University of Melbourne to be appointed President and Vice Chancellor of the new University of Manchester in England, an institution established in 2004 by the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. He is quoted as saying he has 'no plans for a private university of Manchester', although he is said to advocate performance-related pay, a position likely to put him in conflict with the main university lecturers union, the AUT. student direct (http://www.student-direct.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=889)

Gilbert's plans for the new university are ambitious:

Our aim is to make the University of Manchester one of the top 25 research-led universities in the world. It will be an educational and research powerhouse that is at home in England's North-West and committed to regional as well as national and international agendas. Without seeking to emulate the social cachet of Oxbridge or America's Ivy League, it will take its place confidently alongside those virtuoso institutions in its research capability and performance, in the quality of the students and staff that it attracts and in the reputation for scholarly excellence that it secures.

According to the university's strategic plan Towards Manchester 2015 (http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/) the University aims to have five Noble Laureates on its staff by 2015, at least two of whom will have full-time appointments, and three of which it is intended to secure by 2007.

Gilbert continues:

By investing heavily in world class people and offering them state_of_the_art facilities, we aim to make the University of Manchester a destination of preference for many of the best students, teachers, researchers and scholars in the world. More than anything else, the success of the Manchester 2015 Agenda will be driven by the impact of internationally pre_eminent researchers and research clusters on the scholarly culture of the University generally.

Central to Project Unity, the name given to the plan to merge, was the idea of extending the Golden triangle of Oxford Cambridge and the London univerisities UCL and Imperial to a Golden Quadrilateral.

Glbert's address to the university during the inauguration ceremony in Whitworth Hall on 22nd October 2004 made it very clear that he believed the plan was achievable and listed five key elements in the transition From Good to Great, quoting the book of that title by Jim Collins.

External links

• Lucy Hodges writing in The Independent on Gilbert's appointment as VC of Manchester (http://education.independent.co.uk/higher/story.jsp?story=520611)
• "Student direct", critical article (http://www.student-direct.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=889)
• The University of Manchester official website (http://www.manchester.ac.uk)

References

• John Cain and John Hewitt, Off course: From public place to marketplace at Melbourne University, Scribe Publications, 2004, ISBN 1920769099
• Jim Collins, Good to Great, Random House Business Books ISBN 0712676090.