Alan Gilbert
Encyclopedia
Alan David Gilbert AO
, (11 September 1944 – 27 July 2010) was a historian and academic administrator who was until June 2010 the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester
.
During his tenure (1996–2004) as vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne
, he pushed for and established Melbourne University Private
, a private university offshoot which ultimately failed. This, and his well-known controversial views on private funding of universities, led to Richard Davis in 2002 dubbing him the "doyen of economically rationalist
vice-chancellors".
Professor Gilbert died on 27 July 2010 in hospital in Manchester, having suffered from a serious illness for the last few months of his life.
in 1965, then took an MA in history and took a post 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 elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia 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.
. He played the key role in establishing and subsequently developing Melbourne University Private
Limited (MUP), 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 MUP, the University Council borrowed $150 million from the National Australia Bank and agreed to provide additional money from its investment reserves. The present University of Melbourne VC, Glyn Davis, announced the closure of MUP on 7 May 2005, citing no need for such a venture now that market ventures are permitted in the public university sector, and their plans to integrate most of MUP back into the public university. Gilbert declined to comment on the actions of his successor. Ironically the building originally intended for MUP, and now a part of the public university, has been named the Alan Gilbert Building.
Over the course of his tenure, Gilbert attracted the ire of both students and staff. For example, a staff strike took place on 22 October 1999 over lack of clarity over pay and conditions; administrative offices were occupied by students protesting introduction of fee-paying places in 1997, and again in April 2001, when there were 70 arrests.
Off Course: From Public Place to Market Place at Melbourne University, claims that Professor Gilbert left the university a "quasi-privatised institution in the corporate mould".
in England
, an institution established in October 2004 by the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester
and UMIST
. He was quoted as saying he had "no plans for a private university of Manchester", although he is said to advocate performance-related pay, a position thought likely to put him in conflict with the university lecturers union
, the UCU.
Gilbert's plans for the new university were ambitious:
According to the university's strategic plan (largely a copy of his earlier and now abandoned Melbourne Agenda (2002)) the University aims to have five Nobel 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. During Gilbert's tenure as Vice Chancellor, a Nobel prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz was appointed the head of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at Manchester, and Sir John Sulston was appointed to a chair in the Faculty of Life Sciences. After Gilbert's death Andre Geim
and Konstantin Novoselov
, both of whom were appointed before Gilbert moved to Manchester, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010.
Gilbert continued:
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 universities UCL
and Imperial
to a Golden Quadrilateral. "With this work much progress has been made" by the results for 2008.
Gilbert's address to the university during the inauguration ceremony in the Whitworth Hall
on 22 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.
One of the intentions of Gilbert's 2015 agenda was an improvement in Manchester's position in international league tables. In 2004 the University ranked 78th in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities
, which rose to 53rd in 2005 following the merger with UMIST. Progress continued over the next few years, with the University being ranked 50th in 2006, 48th in 2007, and 40th in 2008, before falling back to 41st in 2009. This ranking measures indicators such as Nobel Prize winners and highly cited authors
154 are listed on ISI HighlyCited.com, for Manchester, and has improved partly as a result of the appointment of such people. Gilbert has been quoted in an interview as saying that "there is only one ranking that matters-–the world ranking of global universities produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University".
Up to 2007 £388.5m had been spent on new buildings, funded in part by government grants and sale of other assets. However, Gilbert announced that due to increases in salary costs, energy bills and lower than expected revenue the University was about £30m (5% of its annual turnover) in deficit. Gilbert announced plans for 400 redundancies and he and the university management were criticised by the University and College Union
. However Gilbert had as of 2007 honoured his pledge to achieve the staff reductions without compulsory redundancies, and in October 2007 announced that the university's budget had been brought in to "a modest surplus" as a result mainly of a voluntary redundancy scheme.
In 2008 Gilbert announced a "root-and-branch review" of Manchester's teaching quality that the University's 'strategy to join the world's elite universities will be worthless unless staff can be 're-invented' to interact more with students".
In the aftermath of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise
Gilbert is quoted by Prof. Dame Nancy Rothwell
as saying to the Senate of the University
On 14 January 2010, the University of Manchester announced Alan Gilbert would be retiring from his position as President and Vice Chancellor of the University. Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell was then appointed acting Vice Chancellor. Her appointment as the new Vice Chancellor was announced on 21 June 2010.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, (11 September 1944 – 27 July 2010) was a historian and academic administrator who was until June 2010 the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
.
During his tenure (1996–2004) as vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
, he pushed for and established Melbourne University Private
Melbourne University Private
Melbourne University Private was a private university spinoff founded by the University of Melbourne in Australia, which operated from July 1998 to 2005. It was designed as a profit making venture, independent of as much government control as possible, in an attempt to maneuver around some of the...
, a private university offshoot which ultimately failed. This, and his well-known controversial views on private funding of universities, led to Richard Davis in 2002 dubbing him the "doyen of economically rationalist
Economic rationalism
Economic rationalism is an Australian term in discussion of microeconomic policy, applicable to the economic policy of many governments around the world, in particular during the 1980s and 1990s....
vice-chancellors".
Professor Gilbert died on 27 July 2010 in hospital in Manchester, having suffered from a serious illness for the last few months of his life.
Early academic career
Gilbert graduated with a first class BA at the Australian National UniversityAustralian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
in 1965, then took an MA in history and took a post as lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea
University of Papua New Guinea
The University of Papua New Guinea was established by ordinance of the Australian administration in 1965. This followed the Currie Commission which had enquired into higher education in Papua New Guinea...
in 1967. He gained a scholarship at Nuffield College, Oxford
Nuffield College, Oxford
Nuffield College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is an all-graduate college and primarily a research establishment, specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. It is a research centre in the social sciences...
and he was awarded a DPhil in 1973.
He returned to Australia as a lecturer at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
where he established an academic reputation as an historian
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
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 elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia 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
University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia...
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 MelbourneUniversity of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. He played the key role in establishing and subsequently developing Melbourne University Private
Melbourne University Private
Melbourne University Private was a private university spinoff founded by the University of Melbourne in Australia, which operated from July 1998 to 2005. It was designed as a profit making venture, independent of as much government control as possible, in an attempt to maneuver around some of the...
Limited (MUP), 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 MUP, the University Council borrowed $150 million from the National Australia Bank and agreed to provide additional money from its investment reserves. The present University of Melbourne VC, Glyn Davis, announced the closure of MUP on 7 May 2005, citing no need for such a venture now that market ventures are permitted in the public university sector, and their plans to integrate most of MUP back into the public university. Gilbert declined to comment on the actions of his successor. Ironically the building originally intended for MUP, and now a part of the public university, has been named the Alan Gilbert Building.
Over the course of his tenure, Gilbert attracted the ire of both students and staff. For example, a staff strike took place on 22 October 1999 over lack of clarity over pay and conditions; administrative offices were occupied by students protesting introduction of fee-paying places in 1997, and again in April 2001, when there were 70 arrests.
Off Course: From Public Place to Market Place at Melbourne University, claims that Professor Gilbert left the university a "quasi-privatised institution in the corporate mould".
University of Manchester
Gilbert left the University of Melbourne to be appointed President and Vice Chancellor of the new University of ManchesterUniversity of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, an institution established in October 2004 by the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester was a university in Manchester, England. On 1 October 2004 it merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form a new entity, "The University of Manchester".-1851 - 1951:The University was founded in 1851 as Owens College,...
and UMIST
UMIST
The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research...
. He was quoted as saying he had "no plans for a private university of Manchester", although he is said to advocate performance-related pay, a position thought likely to put him in conflict with the university lecturers union
University and College Union
The University and College Union is a British trade union formed by the merger in 2006 of the Association of University Teachers and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education ....
, the UCU.
Gilbert's plans for the new university were 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 OxbridgeOxbridgeOxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...
or America's Ivy LeagueIvy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
, 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 (largely a copy of his earlier and now abandoned Melbourne Agenda (2002)) the University aims to have five Nobel Laureates
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
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. During Gilbert's tenure as Vice Chancellor, a Nobel prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz was appointed the head of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at Manchester, and Sir John Sulston was appointed to a chair in the Faculty of Life Sciences. After Gilbert's death Andre Geim
Andre Geim
Andre Konstantin Geim, FRS is a Dutch-Russian-British physicist working at the University of Manchester. Geim was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Konstantin Novoselov for his work on graphene...
and Konstantin Novoselov
Konstantin Novoselov
Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov FRS is a Russo-British physicist, most notably known for his works on graphene together with Andre Geim, which earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Novoselov is currently a member of the mesoscopic physics research group at the University of Manchester as...
, both of whom were appointed before Gilbert moved to Manchester, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010.
Gilbert continued:
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
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
and the London universities UCL
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
and Imperial
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
to a Golden Quadrilateral. "With this work much progress has been made" by the results for 2008.
Gilbert's address to the university during the inauguration ceremony in the Whitworth Hall
Whitworth Hall
The Whitworth Hall on Oxford Road and Burlington Street in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England is part of the University of Manchester. It has been listed Grade II* since 18 December 1963. The Hall lies at the south-east range of the Old Quadrangle of the University, with the Manchester Museum...
on 22 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
Good to Great
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't is a 2001 management book by James C. Collins that aims to describe how companies transition from being average companies to great companies and how companies can fail to make the transition...
, quoting the book of that title by Jim Collins.
One of the intentions of Gilbert's 2015 agenda was an improvement in Manchester's position in international league tables. In 2004 the University ranked 78th in the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
, which rose to 53rd in 2005 following the merger with UMIST. Progress continued over the next few years, with the University being ranked 50th in 2006, 48th in 2007, and 40th in 2008, before falling back to 41st in 2009. This ranking measures indicators such as Nobel Prize winners and highly cited authors
ISI highly cited researcher
ISI Highly Cited is a database of "highly cited researchers"—scientific researchers whose publications are most often cited in academic journals over the past decade, published by the Institute for Scientific Information...
154 are listed on ISI HighlyCited.com, for Manchester, and has improved partly as a result of the appointment of such people. Gilbert has been quoted in an interview as saying that "there is only one ranking that matters-–the world ranking of global universities produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University".
Up to 2007 £388.5m had been spent on new buildings, funded in part by government grants and sale of other assets. However, Gilbert announced that due to increases in salary costs, energy bills and lower than expected revenue the University was about £30m (5% of its annual turnover) in deficit. Gilbert announced plans for 400 redundancies and he and the university management were criticised by the University and College Union
University and College Union
The University and College Union is a British trade union formed by the merger in 2006 of the Association of University Teachers and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education ....
. However Gilbert had as of 2007 honoured his pledge to achieve the staff reductions without compulsory redundancies, and in October 2007 announced that the university's budget had been brought in to "a modest surplus" as a result mainly of a voluntary redundancy scheme.
In 2008 Gilbert announced a "root-and-branch review" of Manchester's teaching quality that the University's 'strategy to join the world's elite universities will be worthless unless staff can be 're-invented' to interact more with students".
In the aftermath of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise
Research Assessment Exercise
The Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions...
Gilbert is quoted by Prof. Dame Nancy Rothwell
Nancy Rothwell
Dame Nancy J. Rothwell, DBE, FRS is a British physiologist and academic who became the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester in July 2010, having been Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor since January 2010. Dame Nancy is also a director of pharmaceuticals company...
as saying to the Senate of the University
It is vital for the University to be strengthening its research profile through research selectivity (in the sense of investing in quality and divesting in [sic] mediocrity) and research concentration (in the sense of investing to develop and/or sustain world leading clusters of supreme excellence). If we do not make major progress on that research re-profiling agenda over the next year or so we will have lost a priceless opportunity.
On 14 January 2010, the University of Manchester announced Alan Gilbert would be retiring from his position as President and Vice Chancellor of the University. Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell was then appointed acting Vice Chancellor. Her appointment as the new Vice Chancellor was announced on 21 June 2010.
Family
Professor Gilbert had two children named Shelly and Fiona and three grandchildren.Publications
- 1973: The Growth and Decline of Nonconformity in England and Wales, with special reference to the period before 1850: an historical interpretation of statistics of religious practice. Thesis (D.Phil.)--University of Oxford (Nuffield College).
- 1976: Religion and Society in Industrial England: church, chapel and social change, 1740–1914. London: Longman ISBN 0-582-48323-9
- 1977: Churches and Churchgoers: patterns of church growth in the British Isles since 1700. Oxford: Clarendon Press (with Robert Currie & Lee Horsley)
- 1980: The Making of Post-Christian Britain: a history of the secularization of modern society. London: Longman
- 2004: The Idea of a 21st Century University. (Audenshaw Papers; 208.) Torquay: Hinksey Network (8-page pamphlet)