July 1st marked Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka’s freshly minted Vice Chancellor Grant Robertson’s first day on the job. The former OUSA President and Deputy Prime Minister has had a busy first couple weeks of welcomes, meetings, and media attention, telling the Uni Council at his first meeting last Tuesday that he’s looking forward to “getting on with the job past the welcome phase.”
Grant squeezed in some time between morning and afternoon welcoming events to answer some media questions. Sheltered under the Clocktower from the rain (a classic Dunedin welcome) Grant spoke to reporters from Critic Te Ārohi, the Otago Daily Times and the NZ Herald about his upcoming role.
“Unsurprisingly, there’s quite a few meetings, which seems to go with the job,” Grant said. “Very much the next couple of weeks [will be] getting my feet under the desk, getting on top of the current issues that we’ve got and starting to look ahead to the rest of the year.”
Asked what he thinks the biggest challenges facing the university are at the moment, Grant replied: “Everyone’s pretty clear on the financial challenges that all universities are facing, not just Otago, and we’ve still gotta work our way through those but there’s a good plan in place to deal with that.”
Speaking to the recent news from the TEC proposing that universities could raise tertiary fees by up to 6% next year, Grant said it’ll be up to every university to make its decision based on its budget, keeping in mind the financial positions of students as well. “We’ll take some time to consult on that,” said Grant.
A priority for Grant will be in maintaining the good reputation of the university to “make sure we’ve got a good crop of students coming in 2025, both international and domestic.” Having returned from holiday only recently, Grant said that Otago Uni received a mention on a Loch Ness boat trip for a DNA project conducted about the mythical lake monster. “Every single day, thousands of tourists hear about Otago University. That’s a great story. So for me, yep there’s a lot of challenges but there’s loads of opportunities.”
Grant’s message to students is that he’s “delighted to be here and I’m looking forward to meeting as many as possible, as soon as possible.” In April, he met with OUSA student exec, including reps from the Māori and Pasifika student associations, whom he says gave him “lots of food for thought.”
“So I’m really looking forward to spending as much time as I can with students. To me, that’s an important part of the job. Obviously I'm busy with the administration of the university, but the university only exists because of and for students so my message is that I know that and I’m keen to be working together.”
Speaking at his first Uni Council meeting last Tuesday, Grant said it was an unexpected “honour and privilege” to once again be sat at the table where he served as the student representative in 1993 – gesturing to a beaming Keegan who currently sits in that role. Students graduating this coming August will get the chance to hear from the man himself, with Grant scheduled to be one of the speakers there.