Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) to step down

In an email to staff last week, Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott announced that the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Duncan Ivison would be stepping down from his position in March next year.

Thanking him for his tenure at the University, Scott made note of Ivison’s achievements under the 2016-20 research strategy. These included the establishment of the Sydney Policy Lab, the Sydney Knowledge Hub, and a range of other research initiatives. Before he took on his current role, Ivison was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (2010-15) and before that, head of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (2007-9).

Ivison has publicly defended university cuts on numerous occasions during his time as a member of management.

In 2012, EAG and NTEU demonstrators occupied his office during a ‘Stop the Cuts’ rally and, after his arrival, he addressed the crowd with his “perspective.”

Later, in 2020, Ivison was embroiled in the student occupation of F23, where he refused to negotiate on cuts to medical science as he stood in the building’s foyer.

Ivison’s departure is the latest in a number of managerial changes, with the recent appointment of Annamarie Jagose as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost in August, Mark Scott’s appointment as Vice-Chancellor in March and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Pip Pattison announcing her retirement for the end of 2021.

The University will shortly commence an international search to find his replacement.