So far so good

It may be too soon to be attaching grades to Prof Sir David Skegg's legacy as University of Otago vice-chancellor, but the announcement last week that he will stand down in July 2011 has been met variously with surprise, disappointment and praise.

It is a measure of the unassuming manner in which he has conducted his office that it seems implausible he will have served seven years by the time he departs it - thus the surprise.

An air of disappointment might be discerned among those who feel he has been an energetic leader, yet one who seemed to have the vision and drive to achieve still more.

And there have, of course, been accolades for the considerable accomplishments of his regime.

Yet, as the last 14 months of his tenure look likely to be busy, possibly controversial and to present acute challenges - the promise of some acrimony, even - perhaps an interim report is not untimely.

Prof Skegg was appointed vice-chancellor in August 2004, replacing Dr Graeme Fogelberg.

His elevation from internationally respected epidemiologist and head of the Otago Medical School's preventive and social medicine department to the university's top job was considered by many as inspired.

The appointment of such a ranking academic to the post was an immediate fillip to staff, some of whom had begun to tire, if not of the actual thrust of university management, then more than likely the terminology in which it was couched.

It had the added bonus of being - in the context of the managerialism inculcated by his immediate predecessor - a slightly unusual "appointment from within".

Prof Skegg was one of their own.

While he was born in Auckland and attended that city's King's College, he arrived in Dunedin as an outstanding second-year medical student in 1967 and, apart from prestigious awards - such as the Rhodes Scholarship which took him to Oxford University in 1972 - and the odd lecturing sojourn offshore, he has never left.

As restructuring of the university's College of Education, the department of social work and community development and departments within the school of business proceed this year and next as the result of a cost and efficiency task force's findings, Prof Skegg will have his hands full in his final months.

He may also find himself having to defend the rationale he has championed: broadly speaking, this privileges core academic subjects over some of the more practical courses within the prospectus - and orients the university more advantageously towards coveted performance based research funding (PBRF), as well as aiming to raise academic excellence and profile.

But it is not as if Prof Skegg is unfamiliar with such challenges: the week in which he took up his post, the university faced Tertiary Education Commission funding cuts of 5% for some courses; and, observers say, he has not been one to shy away from hard decisions.

Such matters are unlikely to impact unduly on any considered reckoning of Prof Skegg's vice-chancellorship, particularly as it relates to the university's reputation.

He moved early in his period in office to boost prestige through initiatives both practical and symbolic.

His assistant vice-chancellors were renamed, in keeping with convention, pro-vice-chancellors.

He signalled his intent to take a more proactive role in academic leadership by consistently advancing the case for excellence; he also created the position of chief operating officer, transferring to it some of the CEO-type responsibilities of the vice-chancellorship.

By 2006, the renewed emphasis on research had taken Otago to the top of the PBRF rankings for New Zealand universities; and the roll of postgraduate doctoral students rose from 829 in 2005 to 1264 in 2009.

He has also presided over a sea change in the university's approach to student discipline, which, following a number of unseemly events, threatened to tarnish the institution's reputation permanently.

And he has been active in envisaging what lies ahead for the country's oldest university, personally involving himself in the campus master plan - a road map to the future, undoubtedly to be much debated.

Prof Skegg has all the while maintained a low profile - arguably out of keeping with his position as one of the most powerful public servants in the city.

Under his leadership, the flow of information from the university has been measured and controlled.

Like any major organisation - this one with an annual income of $580 million, responsibility for 22,000 students and employing about 4000 full and part-time staff - the university has undoubtedly had time in the media spotlight when it might have wished it otherwise; equally, there will have been stories and issues that have not surfaced.

One of Prof Skegg's many strengths has been his ability, when called upon, to communicate frankly and firmly, but without prejudice or malice - a distinction that has to date earned him respect from all sides.