S1 Ep28: Episode 28: Career reflections, Covid consequences and a very long Corridor

University Registrars Talking About Stuff

In Episode 28 of the University Registrars Talking About Stuff I am in conversation with Roger Gair, University Secretary at the University of Leeds. Roger has enjoyed a long and distinguished higher education career and, unusually, all of it has been at the same university. After over four decades at Leeds, almost half of that time as University Secretary, Roger must be one of the longest serving administrative leaders in the UK. Although no-one has checked.

Looking back over his career Roger observes how the pace of work has undoubtedly picked up and working practices changed and moved from gifted amateurism to much greater professionalism. When Roger started out he had to write out minutes longhand and fondly remembers the excitement of his first access to word processing facilities.

We discuss the impact of the Thatcher cuts to HE in 1981, just as Roger was beginning his career, and he recalls the dramatic impact of them on the university back then, including on the Vice-Chancellor who was himself a former Conservative education Minister. Whilst those cuts felt like a real attack on universities the impact was not dissimilar to the Covid experience in terms of the scale and consequences. We explore the Leeds response to the pandemic and the wider HE issues together with what Roger describes as the corrosive impact of the government narrative on the relationship between students and their universities. During all of this Leeds has welcomed a new Vice-Chancellor too and Roger outlines the difficulty of providing a proper induction for her under lockdown and how well she has responded to the challenges of starting the role at a time of remote working for many.

Other aspects of Covid recovery are considered too and Roger looks forward to the opportunities presented by his forthcoming retirement. Finally Roger clears up some of the background to an architectural wonder at Leeds, the fact that it is home to one of the longest corridors in Europe, a notable construction that actually predates his arrival at the University.