Phil Baty

I'd start by reaffirming a fundamental truth - that many groundbreaking discoveries come from curiosity and blue skies thinking, which requires universities to make real space for creativity, including playful, risky and fun experimentation. The Ig Nobel prize was set up to honour research that makes people laugh as well as think and one Ig Nobel prize winner, physicist Andre Geim (who won for a mischievous levitating frog experiment), went on to win the Nobel prize itself - for discovering graphine. But higher education has systemic barriers to research creativity we should challenge: excessive focus on quick publication; time wasted applying for grants with huge failure rates; administrative bloat; excess regulation. Provide space!

The wonderful thing about universities is that they share core values - truth seeking, innovative thinking, discovery etc. But this does make developing a distinctive vision and "brand" for a university extremely challenging - and it's why so many vision statements are so remarkably similar worldwide. I would start with the "three Rs" developed by Susannah Baker, former communications director at Cambridge University: ask yourself what is "real, relevant and rare" about your institution. "Real, because what you say is special about you must be true and authentic; rare, because if you can’t claim any difference, it’s hard to see why you would be chosen from among the competition; and relevant, because what sets you apart must matter."

First things first, we should challenge the myth that academia, as a life of the mind, is a special, vocational "calling" that means you can never switch off and that over work becomes a badge of honour. This risks the glamourisation of over-work and the normalisation of exceeding contracted hours. Of course, all of us who love our work often exceed contracted hours, but clear boundaries need to be set. We must also seek to collectively challenge the systemic issues: under funding, excessive casualisation, in-built career precarity, and the fragile ecosystem of good will and free labour that academic life is built upon. It can take courage, but deciding when to, and finding the courage to say "no", has proven extremely helpful for many.

A first principle, understanding and articulating the extraordinary, inspiring potential of interdisciplinarity is key: research that crosses traditional academic disciplines and breaks down subject silos is widely understood to be essential for the next generation of big breakthroughs. The world’s biggest challenges are, of course, highly complex. Addressing the climate crisis, for example, will require combined expertise in science, engineering, psychology, sociology and much more. In academia, some of the most exciting discoveries are coming through crossing disciplines. Bioinformatics, for example, is harnessing vast pools of data to open up new avenues in personalised healthcare. It is a truly inspirational vision.

There's a joke I like to repeat at any opportunity: Universities can change the course of history, but they can't change a history course. So dense are the typical bureaucratic structures, the internal committee processes and procedures, and the long timelines for approval and action, it can be easy to assume that transformational change is too difficult, or simply can not be done. But the pandemic, and the dramatic changes that it prompted across universities worldwide almost overnight, proves that significant, even radical, change can be made quickly and effectively, with sufficient impetus and clarity of purpose. So step one is to believe that change can happen, and step two is to articulate clearly and compellingly the need for change.

Humility in leadership is vital. Former US president Dwight Eisenhower said that "pulling a piece of string will make it follow you while pushing it will get you nowhere at all". Even Machiavelli understood the need to be open to dissenting voices, to treat expert advisors with true respect and to delegate! In The Prince, he wrote: "The prince should think of the advisor in order to keep him good – honouring him… putting him in his debt, giving him a share of the honours and responsibilities.” Above all, the vital importance of communications is epitmosed by the classic joke: Being a university president is like being the director of a cemetery – everyone is under you but no one is listening!