VICE-CHANCELLORDe Montfort University, Leicester

CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACK

INTRODUCTION FROM THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS Welcome to De Montfort University. You approach us at a time of great change and renewal but also a time of boundless opportunity, not only for the University and our students but also for the right candidate if you have the qualities we seek in our next Vice-Chancellor. The task ahead and demands of this role will not be for everyone but for the successful candidate there won’t a more rewarding or fulfilling role in Higher Education right now.

Let me explain why we believe De Montfort – DMU – is a special place, special in what we achieve, in our beliefs, values and attitudes and above all in the way we place students, their experience, their education and their futures front, centre, first, and last.

DMU’s campus hugs the bank of the River Soar yet lies just a moment’s walk from the very centre of the city of Leicester. Our oldest campus building dates from the 13th Century and our most recent, the award-winning Vijay Patel Building, was opened in 2017. We are a ‘new’ university but our teaching heritage stretches back 150 years. Ours is an institution with powerful links to the city and the wider community which we serve through our #DMUlocal initiative while placing great stress on the international academic experiences we create for our students through #DMUglobal. You’ll read more about both further on in this pack.

As you walk the campus you get a powerful sense of who we all are. Everywhere there is energy and engagement, commitment and creativity. This is a highly diverse university, like our city. More than half of our undergraduates are from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background. And for a university that places great emphasis on creating opportunities and broadening horizons we take great pride in almost four out of five of our students being the first in their families to attend a university. In 2019 we were named the first ever ‘University of the Year for Social Inclusion’ in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

Central to the purpose of everyone who works at DMU, be it as an academic or member of professional services, is the student experience and how we maintain the highest level of quality. Put simply, the lives of our students are what matter most at DMU. Of paramount importance is high quality teaching and DMU remains justly proud to hold a ‘Gold’ ranking in the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework. The award recognises the impact that outstanding teaching has on DMU’s students with whom we work closely to jointly create a unique learning experience.

While taking immense pride being a university with close links to Leicester and its vibrant local communities that sense of purpose and commitment to being a force for good and an agent for change extends well beyond the city to the wider world. In 2018 DMU pledged its support to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and became designated global hub for one of them. It is an initiative that comes right back to the home campus as it helps to inform our teaching, research and student support.

Our recent recruitment campaign described DMU as a place where students will discover that they can be ‘proud to be more’, a phrase which captures the essence of everything this university tries to achieve with its students. ‘Proud to be more’ describes the freedom learning and scholarship create to transform student lives, to enable those studying with us to exceed expectations, to break through the barriers and become the people they are capable of being with the lives, achievements, and careers to match.

The university has had its challenges of late; they are being tackled diligently and directly and are being overcome. As the newly appointed Chair of the Board, I have been impressed by the work being done to rebuild confidence around the university and a major programme of work to re-examine and reconstruct the university’s governance arrangements is well underway. Most important of all, however, is that DMU’s ‘Gold’ standard teaching, its highly regarded research work, its international relationships, its financial performance and academic results remain in robust health.

However, that is only the starting point and the new Vice-Chancellor will have the freedom – and, indeed, be expected – to bring new ideas and fresh approaches and to challenge the university about its methods and its manners.

The search, then, is on for someone who shares the passion that infuses DMU and all its works. Someone who is adept in articulating and helping to create a culture of trust, respect and shared responsibility. Someone who will recognise the ways in which our students' lives can be transformed and cherish the opportunity to be at the forefront of it. This will be a confident Vice-Chancellor unafraid of change and with all the skills to manage and steer the processes. We’re looking for a natural, gifted and collaborative leader who recognises the essential qualities and achievements of De Montfort and who – working with the executive, academics as well as with me and the renewed Governing Body – can summon them up and orchestrate them into a strategy for the decade ahead.

I hope we can look forward to your application.

Ian Squires

Chair of the De Montfort University Board of Governors

THE STUDENT EXPERIENCEDe Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a dynamic, forward-looking and globally aware university; in 2020, we’re marking 150 years of teaching that changes lives. We understand that as a legacy of trust we must build on.

DMU continues to develop a strong reputation founded on proven academic quality, a clear focus on graduate careers, and on international impact and collaboration that extends across university life and study.

We offer every student a welcoming and inclusive scholarly environment, where they can expand their knowledge, enjoy exciting new life experiences and increase their appeal to employers. At the heart of this is the Student Experience Strategy, a strong statement – co-created with our students - of our commitment to their success as they define it in the fields that excite and challenge them.

Nearly four out of five of our students are the first in their family to attend university; more than half are Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME). We are proud of our diverse and multinational university community, which features individuals from 140 countries; our success in these areas saw us named as the first-ever University of the Year for Social Inclusion, in the Sunday Times Good University Guide last year, an achievement of which we are immensely proud.

DMUfreedom DMUfreedom is a proud declaration of our commitment to equality and diversity.

It is a commitment to continue cultivating an environment in which staff, students and partners have freedom:

• freedom to be• freedom to inspire, and • freedom to succeed

TEACHING AND EMPLOYABILITYDMU achieved the highest, Gold-level award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2017, the only UK government-endorsed measure of teaching quality in higher education. DMU’s success in the TEF assessment emphasises that our students enjoy outstanding teaching, learning and achievements. The latest available figures show that more than 97 per cent of DMU graduates quickly enter work or further study, above the UK average.

DMU believes in developing work-ready graduates with professional experience and industry skills on their CV. Their careers are in focus during every moment of study, with UK and overseas placements, internships, targeted training, coaching and research opportunities part of DMU life and study. There is also lifelong support for them through our DMU Works and DMU for Life programmes.

DMU graduates have won Oscars – Animation graduate Ben Carlson, for his work on visual effects in ‘Ex Machina’, and fellow Animation alumnus Ben Frost, a triple winner after contributing to the team who created ‘Zootopia’, ‘Big Hero 6’ and ‘Frozen’ – while others work for organisations including Tommy Hilfiger, Warner Bros, HSBC, Nike, the BBC, Gucci, BMW, Levi’s, NASA, the NHS, Disney, IBM and Adidas.

Many courses are accredited by professional bodies and we developed our Business Information Systems course with HP; we also teamed up with UK national broadcaster Channel 4 to create an Investigative Journalism course, and with the National Health Service to offer training. DMU is also an official partner of Premier League club Leicester City, an agreement which brings hundreds of opportunities for students.

THE FACULTY OF ARTS DESIGN AND HUMANITIES With a 150-year history we benefit from leading researchers and practitioners, cutting-edge workshops and studios with international links with industry. This enables us to deliver world-leading research, transformative creative education as well as support our students into employment.

THE FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND LAW Our mission is to provide high quality education and training underpinned by internationally recognised research to prepare our students to work in diverse, global environments with a commitment to the public good.

THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES Our values-driven community goes beyond‘business as usual’, offering a learningenvironment where students are encouragedto challenge convention, create and inspire.Much of our research is world-leading,with considerable impact for a wide rangeof stakeholders, including businesses,trade unions, charities, government andpolicy makers.

THE FACULTY OF COMPUTING, ENGINEERING AND MEDIA We encourage students to use their creativityand curiosity to experiment with technologyacross our disciplines. Our world-class andexceptionally diverse research feeds directly intoour teaching and course development, helpingus build an international reputation for the workthat we do.

Our courses translate passion into graduate-level skills by combining interests with practice, theory, academic insight and industry understanding, across disciplines in all our four faculties.

OUR RESEARCH CHANGES LIVESLike the very best research, ours challenges conventional thinking to help transform society and change lives for the better. Our research quality was reflected in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – nearly 60 per cent was judged to be of international quality, with 18 per cent internationally leading. Great teams and outstanding individuals have delivered some extraordinary recent innovations: artificial limbs made out of plastic water bottles that could save healthcare providers millions and help tackle both mobility and pollution; pH level-boosted water that could help tackle obesity and health problems caused by sugar in drinks; medicines with the potential to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and recognition for pioneering cyber security studies around threat intelligence, industrial control systems and AI-based defences. Transformative research is undertaken in more than 30 research centres and institutes across all four faculties. Highlights of our research include: Gabriel Egan, DMU’s Professor of Shakespeare Studies, researching widely to find the actual locations of many of the theatres where some of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed.

Dr Katie Laird looking at how the superbug C. difficile survives in hospital bedsheets through industrial laundering and the ability of bacteria to withstand low temperature laundering. DMU’s Cinema and Television History (CATH), which has influenced policy and played a key role in preserving our cinematic and cultural heritage through running film festivals and exhibitions and working with arts organisations, archives and professional bodies. Dr Sangeeta Tanna and Dr Graham Lawson inventing a way of testing active ingredients which is quicker, cheaper and easier to perform than standard analysis as part of efforts to tackle a growing market in counterfeit medicines. The recently-launched Stephen Lawrence Research Centre aims to drive forward conversations that will shape and influence how we think about race and social justice.

LEICESTER – AN EXTRAORDINARY CITYLeicester is a diverse and vibrant city like no other – a great global city at the centre of the UK and central to a new, confident and inclusive expression of the British experience.

It’s home to Britain’s most multicultural high street, moments away from campus; rich cultural exchanges occur every day across communities. Leicester hosts a Caribbean festival that is the largest of its kind outside London, and the biggest Diwali celebrations outside of India. Great world cuisine is in the city’s soul, headline-making sport in its heart; creative energy and an instinct for innovation push projects forward.

Now there’s another story to be told about Leicester – about the cultural powerhouse driven by its diversity and entrepreneurial spirit, a city recognised not only for

its quality of life [2019 Good Growth for Cities Index], but as the best place in the country for tech start-ups, [Tech Nation 2018 report], and top two in the UK in which to start a business [Start-Up Britain report].

Leicester is an unfolding story that DMU is proud to be part of. In 1870, 150 years ago this year, a group of visionary people in our city – wanting better for themselves and their peers – laid our strong foundations through a simple commitment to serve through education; we see it as central to our mission that we reaffirm that commitment and renew it for future generations.

A place with presence and a proud past, Leicester is much more importantly a city with an extraordinary future ahead.

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DMU students celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi, known as the festival of colours, which marks the start of spring

OUR MISSION AND VALUES WE ARE A SCHOLARLY COMMUNITY THAT IS COMMITTED TO THE PUBLIC GOOD AND DRIVEN BY AN UNRIVALLED ABILITY TO CHALLENGE CONVENTION AND CREATE IMPACT.

Creativity: Our strongest roots lie in being innovative and creative. By applying these principles across all that we do, we enable our staff, students and graduates to succeed in a dynamic and turbulent environment.

Professionalism: Our stakeholders and partners recognise and value the professionalism of our staff, students and graduates.

Pride: Our staff, students, alumni and key stakeholders are proud of our impact and celebrate the diversity of our scholarly community.

Respect: We acknowledge our responsibility to cultivate sustainable working and learning environments that embody and promote equality of opportunity amongst communities, both within and outside the university.

Aspiration: We raise the aspirations of our students and aspire to transform the communities with which we work by making a meaningful contribution to their social and economic development.

Sustainability: We are committed to supporting the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals through our pioneering research, community work and outstanding teaching.

DMU’s Strategic Plan Our current Strategic Plan outlines how we are driven by a desire to fire the imagination of our students and staff and to deliver life-changing impact in our city, our country and across the world.

More than half of our students are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds; nearly four out of five are the first in their families to attend university; nearly one in six has a declared disability. We are immensely proud of this extraordinary diversity and what it brings to our university life. As the first-ever University of the Year for Social Inclusion in 2019, we believe strongly that the opportunity of attending university should be available to all.

Our students make a significant impact on the city of Leicester through life-changing volunteering projects in education, regeneration and health and wellbeing. Our graduates are responsible for some of the highest rates of start-up development in the country, contributing to the massive £776m in digital tech business turnover in the last decade in Leicester.

We are committed to supporting the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through our pioneering research, community work and ambitious teaching and, as a Global Hub for SDG 16 – to promote peace, justice and strong institutions - we take immensely seriously our responsibilities to our community and to our world.

Our achievements are many, but we believe that this is just the start. We hope that our next Vice-Chancellor will help deliver a strategy that builds on these foundations and shape a future that DMU truly deserves.

DMU’s Current Strategic Plan

A CAMPUS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY, A UNIVERSITY FOR THE CITYDMU has developed its city-centre campus into what we believe is one of the finest in the country, built on sustainable design principles.

The centrepiece is the award-winning Vijay Patel building, home to professionally equipped art and design workshops. Across campus there are labs, studios, suites and study spaces with industry-standard equipment that help students develop the skills they need to shape their futures. Leicester Castle Business School has been created by DMU to meet the needs of 21st-century business, and offers a specialised learning environment where students are encouraged to challenge convention and are given the opportunities and tools to think, create and inspire in a characteristically distinctive setting, the historic Great Hall of Leicester Castle.

Two arches – relics from The Church of the Annunciation where the battle-scarred remains of Richard III were first placed after the Battle of Bosworth – are exhibited at DMU’s Heritage Centre, acknowledging the historical importance of the Newarke area. They were unearthed in 1935 during extension work at our Hawthorn building.

Our global vision is grounded in the strong relationships and partnership we have with communities and institutions in our exciting home city of Leicester. These include DMU Local, which harnesses the commitment, knowledge and ideas of DMU staff and students in support of the university’s commitment to the public good.

DMU is becoming the partner of choice within the city through its work to support the promotion of Leicester as a global city of intellectual, cultural and sporting importance. A formal collaboration with Leicester City Council was established in 2016, a ground-breaking agreement to work together on projects, and to identify methods of social innovation to tackle challenges across education, community regeneration and health. Academics will become consultants for the authority, applying their own and others’ research into health, technology, psychology and design to key strategic programmes being planned by the council. The project, called Local+, takes the DMU Local initiative a natural step further.

DMU adds £500m to the UK economy – half of it in Leicestershire, according to a recent report. Independent analysts Regeneris mapped the economic and social impact made by DMU over one financial year, revealing the range and extent of its impact on businesses, services and communities across the city, region and the UK as a whole.

A GLOBAL PRESENCEEvery DMU student is encouraged to gain experience of the world directly. The many hundreds of DMU Global international travel opportunities that we offer are designed to support academic study, build confidence and experience, and to give participants an advantage in the competitive world jobs market. More than 13,000 students have travelled overseas with DMU Global, with destinations including India, United States, Canada, South Africa, France, Bermuda, Japan, Ireland, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Malta, Italy and China.

We also enable every student to become an active, engaged citizen, and to be an important part of our contribution to society through work in the public good. Square Mile India is an international project we have created in this way. Originally formed to support young people living in a children’s home in the Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad, Square Mile India has since expanded and now encompasses regular students and staff visits to Ahmedabad to work with communities on projects delivering English classes, free hearing screenings, teaching dance and drama, and finding ways in which technology can improve lives.

One of Square Mile India’s significant achievements was to design and build new houses in a community of former leprosy sufferers, who were forced to leave their homes due to monsoon flooding. Architecture students worked in collaboration with an Indian architect to develop designs and homes were being built. Square Mile India was named International Strategy of the Year in the prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards, in the UK. These awards champion the best examples of innovation and enterprise in higher education today. Judges said that DMU’s entry was ‘simply outstanding’.

GREAT is the UK government-backed showcase for innovation; DMU was chosen as the UK’s higher education partner, representing HE at its best alongside respected names from other sectors such as BBC Worldwide, Jaguar Land Rover, PwC and British Airways at international festivals. Working with GREAT provided DMU with an opportunity to make new connections with international partners, strengthen existing relationships and share ideas with innovators across the world.

A UNIVERSITY FOR THE PLANETA very significant international collaboration is our involvement with the United Nations. At the UN HQ in New York, DMU students were able to share their own views at the heart of international diplomacy and collaboration, and in some cases shared their own personal experience of being refugees. Our institution’s belief that universities have a duty to make a difference in the world has led us to engage the higher education sector worldwide in the campaign to help and welcome refugees. Our work with the UN has seen us build new connections with universities in China, Germany, United States and Cyprus.

We have also made the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a key feature of the DMU curriculum; our work in this area was recognised when we were named in 2018 as a Global Hub for SDG 16 – to promote peace, justice and strong institutions. In 2019 our work was further recognised when we were placed in the top 50 universities worldwide for sustainability.

A MESSAGE FROM THE STUDENTS’ UNIONDe Montfort Students’ Union (DSU) is here to ensure all our student members are represented and understood and have their voice heard at all levels across the university. Our mission is to empower students into creating an unforgettable journey by looking out for their wellbeing, creating a home away from home and providing opportunities to get all students actively involved. Although a small union, DSU is a powerful one that strives to work alongside the University to represent all students at DMU.

The students recently let us know that they see student wellbeing and a sense of community as top priorities for DSU so we’re expanding our work in these areas with campaigns such as “Uni2Know”, “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind” and our brand new initiative “Give It a Go” which allows students to get involved in a variety of opportunities and activities. We’ve also recently opened our Zen Zone which is a safe and welcoming space focused on student wellbeing.

We have an incredibly vibrant and diverse student body, which is why we are passionate about ensuring equality and diversity is truly embedded into the university culture. Currently we are supporting Decolonising DMU, and playing an active role in campaigns such as Pride and Black History Month.

In the past year we’ve worked hard to improve student engagement and representation and we now have 400 Course Representatives, 200 Student Groups and a newly constituted Student Council.

DSU is proud to have a very strong partnership with the university, working collaboratively and co-creating on projects in all areas of the university.

We hope that the new Vice-Chancellor will continue to work with the union in a positive way and support all the aims and objectives of the students.

We look forward to meeting you.

Executive Officer Team De Montfort Students’ Union

TEN POINTS OF PRIDE

Some 80% of our nursing graduates start work in the East Midlands

3,200 students and staff contribute 33,400 hours volunteering every year; that’s worth £0.5m to the local economy each year

DMU is worth £500m to the UK economy each year£500m

One in 10 working-age city residents studies at DMU

DMU was placed 50th in the world for sustainability in the first-ever Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings

DMU is an official partner of Premier League club Leicester City, an agreement which brings hundreds of opportunities for our students

DMU was placed 40th on the Stonewall Top 100 Employers list for 2020, the fifth year running in the Top 100

DMU has helped generate the eighth highest number of graduate start-ups of all UK universities – higher than any Russell Group university

97.3% of DMU graduates from summer 2017 are in work or further study after graduating, one of the highest rates in the country

The DMU family includes 3,400 international students from more than 115 countries

Leadership

• Create and deliver a clear vision, purpose and identity for DMU to enable the delivery of a transformational educational and life experience for students

• Ignite the passion and commitment of our staff; leading the DMU culture change strategy, modelling shared values and behaviours, fostering a culture of trust, respect, openness support and cooperation

Strategy and Execution

• Through collaboration, define and shape the strategic direction, priorities and focus for DMU

• Ensure the systems, culture, policies, and practices are in place to enable effective execution of organisational strategy

• Ensure effective governance systems are in place to monitor and adjust performance, ensure regulatory compliance

• Lead and support colleagues in delivering transformational education, a high-quality student experience and leading-edge research; creating a unique differentiator for DMU’s value proposition that sets us apart from others

• Provide clear leadership to the executive team and the Academic Board to encourage performance and delivery at the highest level

• Deliver ‘value for money’ as a public institution and to students in particular and ensure effective management of costs

Collaboration and Inclusivity

• As an ambassador for DMU foster lasting partnerships, locally, nationally and internationally that enable the delivery of life enhancing education and research

• Support the local community in Leicester to promote education, health, and prosperity amongst residents and contribute to the local financial economy

• Build on our track record of widening participation by identifying opportunities to create an inclusive learning and working environment where students and staff are free to be themselves in a physically and psychologically safe environment

Expertise

• Experienced senior academic leader of a University at VC, deputy or equivalent level

• Track record of empowering teams to deliver excellence

• Evidence of having led transformational change programmes focused on improving teaching and research outcomes

• Ability to design and deliver strategies that create unique educational and organisational opportunities that build the DMU brand and reputation and enable transformational education and research

Values and behaviours

• Deep understanding of the power of engaging the motivation and collective intellect of people to drive and deliver top performance

• A Role model for behaviours that create a trusting, respectful, open and collaborative culture

• A passion for equality, diversity and inclusion and evidence of furthering this cause

Attributes

• Ability to quickly build credibility, trust and respect with academic and professional colleagues

• Insightful with high degree of personal insight and clear empathic and humanistic values

• Ability to spot opportunities and take bold decisions using a robust risk-based approach

• Skilled at building relationships and creating effective external partnerships

• Clearly decisive with strong management skills

JOB DESCRIPTIONVICE-CHANCELLOR

THE ROLE THE PERSON

HOW TO APPLYSaxton Bampfylde Ltd is acting as an employment agency advisor to De Montfort University on this appointment.

The closing date for applications is noon on Friday 27 March 2020. Following a long list meeting of the Selection Panel, successful candidates will be invited to attend preliminary meetings with Saxton Bampfylde throughout the weeks of 6, 13, and 20 April. The final interview at De Montfort University will take place on Tuesday 19 May. Please hold this date in your diary accordingly.

Candidates should apply for this role through our website at www.saxbam.com/appointments using code KDOG.

Click on the ‘apply’ button and follow the instructions to upload a comprehensive curriculum vitae and cover letter setting out your interest in the role and details of how you match the required criteria.

In a separate document, please include current salary details and the names and addresses of three referees. Referees will not be approached until the final stages and not without prior permission from candidates.

If you have any questions about the application process, please email belinda.beck@saxbam.com .

GDPR personal data notice According to the GDPR guidelines, we are only able to process your Sensitive Personal Data (racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health, sex life, or sexual orientation) with your express consent. You will be asked to complete a consent form when you apply and please do not include any Sensitive Personal Data within your CV (although this can be included in your covering letter if you wish to do so), remembering also not to include contact details for referees without their prior agreement.

The equal opportunities monitoring online form will not be shared with anyone involved in assessing your application. Please complete as part of the application process.