Belinda Hutchinson was determined to go to university because, unlike her brothers, she was never encouraged to continue academic studies. Alison Watkins assumed she would marry a farmer and go to agricultural college to pick up a qualification that would be useful on a farm. Jennifer Westacott, who originally wanted to be a nun, says the day she graduated from the University of NSW was the proudest day of her life.
“More [universities] are recognising the need to understand corporates and government much better,” Piccoli says. McLoughlin grew up in Berrigan, a small town in southern NSW near the Victorian border. At high school she wanted to be a physiotherapist, but decided against it after a work experience placement in year 10.When she was 17, McLoughlin’s maths teacher planted the seed of a university education and she applied to study law in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
“Coming from a business background I have, by necessity, a very current and pretty deep understanding of the macro-economic and geopolitical environment that we’re all operating in.”Alison Watkins originally intended to gain a qualification that would be useful on a farm.When University of Tasmania chancellor Alison Watkins was chief executive of soft drinks company Coca-Cola Amatil, both chairmen she worked under were involved with university leadership and “loved it”.
Watkins says the symbolism of having senior businesswomen at the very top of the tertiary education system is potent.“More than half of our students are female. Many of our talented researchers are female. Universities should lead the way in shaping the kind of societies we want. So I think the symbolism of these appointments is tremendous.”“At the University of Tasmania, we talk about ourselves as being a university first and foremost for Tasmania. We’ve got a big job.
“Literacy in the part of America I am from was very poor. Lots of people when I was growing up would have thought: ‘Why educate girls anyway?’ “I was always seriously aspirational to go to university. My brothers were always being told they had to go to university, but as a girl in my family, it was like: ‘Why do you need to go to university?’ Which was the great incentive for me to sign up,” Hutchinson recalls.
She has instigated governance reforms at the university, such as reducing the size of the board, or senate, to 15 from 22 people and created a skills, experience and attributes matrix. Hutchinson says she has also introduced more strategic planning. “And of course, you go to university, you get radicalised and the idea of being a nun drops away pretty quickly. But my grandmother and my uncle were obsessed about [me going to university].”Westacott dutifully went off to do a BA at UNSW and says the day she graduated was the proudest in her life.
The companies Catherine Livingstone has been involved with have had a “very strong” research or technology element to them.Livingstone is far from being first in her family to go to university – her parents and grandparents also went. “And I have had experience engaging with government on the policy side, which is really important,” Livingstone says.
How’s the diversity drive going? 🤨
Yeah that is precisely what University leaderships need - more profit loving neoliberal capitalists.