S2 Ep5: Episode 5: University governance - mysterious, omnipresent and sexy?

In this episode of the podcast I have a really good conversation about stuff, mainly governance related, with Louise Nadal, Secretary at the London School of Economics. We learn about Louise’s career journey, which started with a series of short term roles in London universities culminating in a role in HR at Imperial College at which point she realised she wanted to work closer to the core academic operation so moved to a role in planning instead. Not long after starting this job at Royal Holloway she also acquired governance responsibilities for the first time and this pattern repeated a few years later when she joined Sussex. Following this stint in planning and governance Louise moved back to London as University Secretary at UEL before moving to a similar role at Greenwich and then to her current position at LSE. 

Governance then has been omnipresent in Louise’s working life for many years now and she argues that, not only could it be considered sexy, the connections with strategy and planning were particularly relevant.

We look at the key role played by members of governing bodies, how to get the best out of governors and how important it was for them to develop a good understanding of the academic enterprise. Academic governance is identified by Louise as a concept which is often not well understood and she offers some helpful direction.

Exploring the nature of the role of Secretary Louise articulates the value of being able to see how everything fits together across a university and how this helps the Secretary protect the institution. More broadly we consider external challenges from industrial action to new free speech regulation and why universities seem to be easy targets these days.

Finally Louise entertainingly contrasts the higher purpose of many university staff with their ability to waste hours debating the minutiae of issues such as car parking and institutional nomenclature.