Despite taking up a position as vice-chancellor of the University of Brighton in February, Donna Whitehead said she never had any aspirations to become a university leader.
It’s a surprising claim for someone who has steadily risen through the ranks, having started her academic career as a lecturer at the University of Sunderland before becoming deputy vice-chancellor at London Metropolitan University.
Whitehead then served in the same role at the University of South Wales.
“Anyone who’s ever worked with me throughout my career would have heard me say numerous times I didn’t ever want to become a vice-chancellor,” she said.
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So what changed? Whitehead concedes that she has taken on the role at an enormously challenging time for the sector, and Brighton itself has been through a turbulent few years.
In 2023, it cut about 165 jobs as it looked to save £17 million, in a precursor to the wave of job cuts that have hit the sector since.
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It then closed its Brighton Centre for Contemporary Art, a university-run gallery in the centre of the city, to the outrage of locals, sparking protests and even condemnation from former Turner prizewinners.
It is undeniably a challenging period for the sector, but this is exactly what spurred Whitehead to go for the role – the only vice-chancellor position she applied for.
“There’s never been a more important time for people to put themselves forward and try and do things a bit differently,” she said.
She has bold aspirations for Brighton. She wants to “redesign what a university is and what it does”, and said the financial crisis – “which isn’t going anywhere” – means it’s time for “revolution not evolution”.
She said: “Universities find themselves in a position where they simply cannot afford to continue as they are. We can either close our eyes, hold our breath and hope for the best, or we can have difficult conversations within our universities about what we all prioritise…Universities cannot afford to be everything to everyone. There’s simply not enough money to do that.”
And for university leaders, she continued, it isn’t “our job to be liked”.
She refused to rule out continued turbulence but said sector leaders needed to be “candid” with staff. Whitehead said she would be “absolutely open and transparent with staff”.
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But what does radical transformation look like? Brighton recently published its 2035 strategy, pledging to build “an army of disrupters, hustlers, challengers and innovators”, with “technical knowledge and skills…at the heart of what we deliver”.
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Although work had started on this before Whitehead joined, she said the strategy will focus on ensuring the university is “attractive”, provides “excellent outcomes” for students, and is “affordable”.
“Everything is up for redesign,” she said, including how and where courses are delivered, as well as who delivers them. A greater focus on interdisciplinary teaching could form a part of this, so “there’s less isolation and more collaboration between areas”.
She wants Brighton to become “the first institution to eradicate differential outcomes between different student groups”, including the degree awarding gap, the continuation gap and the employment gap between the most socially advantaged and disadvantaged students.
“Even without a financial crisis, the case for radical transformation is clear anyway, because the world needs more graduates than ever before,” she said.
Universities are “largely set up for students of 10 years ago”, she continued. In response to the rise of commuter students, she posited “halls of residence that can be bookable like an Airbnb”.
Ultimately, for Whitehead, it’s simple: “It’s reform or die.” And the ramification of a death would be severe.
“Any institution failing would hit and damage the entire sector, and would undermine confidence in the sector.
“We all have to look very carefully at how we fundamentally transform as institutions so we do things differently, rather than just tinkering around the edges. I personally feel incredibly optimistic that, at Brighton, we can do it.”
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