New Job!

Posted by peterjdean on 7 September, 2008 · 2 Comments 

First post for a while I’m afraid. Things have been very busy. Following the restructuring of the School of Media, Art and Design into three Divisions, I’ve been appointed as Head of the Media Division on an initial one year contract. Now, all of a sudden, I’ve got to think about whether I can blog about what I’m doing. A lot of the job is about HR and finance and they can be both boring (to other people!) and sensitive. The strategic planning can also be sensitive – I don’t want people on the team to find out things from here first.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the job. It is a new challenge and genuinely different to the standard academic job I’ve had before. It is an opportunity to put forward some my own ideas about how we should do things. The Division I’ve got is pretty much as I would want it. We’re responsible for BA Media Production, BA Television Production, BA Music Technology and MA Media, Culture and Technology. We’re also the host Division for the FdA Media Production and FdA Music Technology at Bedford College. This is much more manageable than the huge range of courses offered by the previous School. There’s a lot of things that aren’t my problem! 

We’ve got a pretty solid base to build on. All the undergraduate programmes look to have recruited ok this year. As ever the Masters are difficult. The financial aspects make Masters programmes very difficult for home students and the international market is getting ever more competitive. We already have some ideas for new programmes though.

So my first major tasks are around building a clear identity for the Division, a development plan and a plan for building up the resources. I’ve already had a meeting with the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic). I’ve got a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday. Then there’s the Heads meeting on Friday. Oh, and I’m going to Dublin City University as an external examiner on Wednesday – a busy week!

Filed under management · Tagged with bedfordshire, education, management, university