theceomagazine.com | 57years, we have made a really concerted
effort to recruit the best and the
brightest students.
“One of the things I’m particularly
proud of is that a University of Otago
academic staff member has been the
winner of the Prime Minister’s Supreme
Award for teaching for the past five years.
In the past three years, that Supreme Award
winner has been a Maori female academic.”
It’s clear that Harlene’s vision involves
boosting the university’s profile in the
community, and awards like this certainly
help in that respect. But perhaps her
greatest achievement has been in creating
stronger student engagement. “I bring
all the new students together at the
beginning of the year. I started hosting an
opening convocation; it’s quite a formal
ceremony with a number of speakers.
The Prime Minister often comes, or the
Governor-General. They hear from the
head of the student body, and the Mayor
greets them. They also get a formal Maori
welcome to the city and to the region.
“Then I too get the opportunity to
speak to them, and essentially set the stage
for what’s about to come. I remind our
students that no matter how much they’re
paying for their part of the bill here, the
New Zealand taxpayers are paying 67 per
cent of the cost of their tertiary education.
So the person at the supermarket
checkout, or at the petrol station, or one
of the shops in town, is coming to work
every day and paying their taxes so that
my students can have this amazing
privilege of a world-class education. From
my perspective, with that privilege comes
an enormous obligation.
“I really want my students to be
thinking about giving back from the very
first day that they are here at the
university, so I challenge them to start
supporting the community, which in turn
will support them strongly during their
time here in Dunedin. The first year I did
that, in 2013, within a couple of weeks
the local volunteer services and charities
started calling me on the phone saying,
‘You’ve got to call them off. There’s just
way too many of them here wanting to
help.’ I thought, ‘Well, that’s a good
problem to have. We’re not going to
call them off. We’re going to organise
them.’ So we established the first full-time
volunteer centre on any university campus
in New Zealand, and the job of the
director of volunteer services continues
to be that of the matchmaker between
the students’ skills and availability, and
the needs of the local community. This
has been one of the most successful things
we have ever done here. Our students
become incredibly immersed in the
volunteer community.
“In fact, many of the people who
employ my graduates say to me that one
of the first questions students ask during
a job interview is: ‘What do you guys do
to help the community?’ ”“ I had to work really hard to learn
what I needed to, and that was
really exciting for me.”
Interview | INSPIRE