Letter from our Registrar

Dear friends and colleagues,

I wanted to write to you directly with some news. I have advised the Vice-Chancellor, the Chair of Council and the Vice-Chancellor-elect that I intend to step down from the post of Registrar and Chief Operating Officer with effect from 1 August 2016. I have also confirmed this to today's joint meeting of the Senate and Council.

As many of you will know, my partner, Dan, moved to Melbourne three and a half years ago for what we originally thought would be a short-term move, but this has become a long-term appointment. After much deliberation we have decided to make Australia our substantive home for the period ahead and, after leaving Warwick, I will move to Australia to join him. I have decided to leave at the end of the financial year as it will be less disruptive to continuing operations and services.

Warwick is at an important transitional point where forward momentum is essential. Given the nature of the challenges and opportunities ahead, I want to give the University a significant period of notice so that plans for succession can be put in place well in advance. By the time I step down I will have served for over 18 years at Warwick, over two periods of employment. During that time I have also been fortunate enough to become a Warwick graduate through the DLMBA programme. The University is and will remain a massive part of my life and my development.

As well as starting to plan the move to Australia, I have registered a proposal to read for a PhD. The focus of the study will be to explore and evaluate the accelerating factors that have enabled a subset of universities established in the past 50 years to outperform their peers and appear to be progressing at a faster rate than some older institutions. I hope that Warwick will be part of this study and that the findings might be beneficial to developments in California.

It goes without saying that I remain fully committed to the University and you can be confident that I will work with energy over the next ten months as well as give my continued support and advocacy as an alumnus thereafter.

I will always be grateful for the support that Warwick and its people have given me both professionally and personally.

Thank you, Ken

Registrar and Chief Operating Officer