Steven Schwartz (vice-chancellor)

Steven Schwartz (born 1946) became the Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia on February 10 2006. He was previously Vice Chancellor of Brunel University in the UK and of Murdoch University in Western Australia.

Schwartz is a trained psychologist and a university corporate manager by experience. He has publicly stated that he wishes universities to be more market-oriented, research-focused, accountable, transparent and held to higher standards, in the hope of improving the institutions' profiles and attracting more students, funding and researchers. This has included building new facilities and developing new schools in the universities he has managed such as Brunel University and Murdoch University. His style of management is not without controversy.

Education and early years

Steven Schwartz was born in New York in 1946. After attending public schools, he entered Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He was a National Merit Scholar finalist and he received a New York State Regent Scholarship. After leaving the City University of New York, he was commissioned an officer in the Public Health Service serving at the National Institute of Mental Health before completing a PhD degree at Syracuse University as a US Public Health Service Fellow. He has also worked as a journalist, authoring many articles for research journals, magazines and newspapers.

Academic career

He began his academic career teaching at the Northern Illinois University. This led him to University of Texas Medical Branch where he was a full-time researcher in psychiatry. In 1978 he moved to Australia to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Western Australia in Perth. In 1980, he transferred to the University of Queensland first as Reader and then as Professor of Psychology. He also served as visiting professor at Stanford University in 1983 and Harvard University in 1987.

Over these years, Schwartz’s research spanned clinical psychology, psychiatry, public health and medical decision making. He published over 100 articles in scientific journals, and 13 books including "Medical Judgement and Decision Making" (with Timothy Griffin), "Childhood Psychopathology" (with James Johnston, two editions), "Pavlov’s Heirs" and a well-known textbook on abnormal psychology, "Abnormal Psychology, A Developmental Approach".

Schwartz was named one of the 100 highest cited researchers in his field and he received many recognitions including a World Health Organisation Fellowship, a NATO fellowship and the Australian Academy of Science-Royal Society (London) Exchange Fellowship. He was elected by his peers to the Academy of Social Sciences and he was elected Morris Leibovitz Fellow at the University of Southern California. Schwartz is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Australian Institute of Management. He was a visiting Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and he won the Brain Research Award of the British Red Cross Society. He was elected the first President of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society in Australia and was awarded the distinguished Career Scientist Award by the National Institutes of Health. He served on the editorial boards of many scientific journals and was a fellow of many learned societies. In 1988 he was appointed Head of the University of Queensland Psychology Department and then elected by academic staff to be President of the Academic Board, a position to which he was re-elected for a second term. His experience as Head and then President gave him an interest in administration which he followed by moving back to Perth to take up the position of Executive Dean in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Australia. He was the first medical Dean in Australia who was not a medical doctor. Although there was some scepticism about this among the medical establishment, Schwartz overcame this and his management came to the attention of the Murdoch University search committee which appointed Schwartz Vice Chancellor in 1996. During his tenure at Murdoch University he introduced a number of Feeder Colleges, restructured the University to become more research-focused and developed new courses to attract additional students. He also designed and built a branch campus at Rockingham (which won the Prime Minister's Institutional Award in 1998). To provide a permanent endowment for the University, he undertook a $100 million land development program, which included a housing estate, obtained ISO 9000 quality approval for administrative functions, outsourced non-core business operations such as catering, won the WA Premier's Award for public sector management in 2000, the Prime Minster's National Employer of the Year in 2000, the Telstra National Employer of the Year 2000 and 2002, the Prime Minster's Teaching Award 1998 and began a mentoring program for women. In 2001, in the midst of union activity over a new contract and the protection of low enrolment courses, the members of the local union branch issued a vote of no confidence in him.

At the end of 2002, Schwartz was appointed Vice Chancellor of Brunel University in the United Kingdom: a university with 2400 staff, 13000 students and a yearly budget of £140+ million. Brunel had decided under Michael Sterling, the previous VC, to refocus its mission on research. To help achieve this goal, the university under Schwartz sought to hire new research active staff, and, to help fund this, to reduce the number of non-research active staff (43 eventually accepted voluntary redundancy). The redundancy programme was highly controversial and was fiercely resisted by staff unions who ran a highly personalised campaign against Schwartz. As a part of the repositioning of the university, the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences [http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/ges] was closed and the staff that didn't leave were redeployed (and one accepted voluntary redundancy). Despite the depleted staff base, Geography has been deemed strong enough to be returned in the 2008 RAE [http://www.simonbatterbury.net/pubs/ouagatosterley.pdf] . The benefit of these changes was expected to be seen in increased research output and RAE ratings, bolstering the economic viability of the university. Brunel moved up the league tables (but has since fallen back), international income doubled, entry scores of students rose, the first venture capital trust for a university was established, and management was completely restructured. The jury is still out on this, awaiting the 2008 RAE exercise. Similar to the experience at Murdoch, cutbacks led to staff action, [http://education.guardian.co.uk/universitiesincrisis/story/0,,1425597,00.html] including picketing and paid ads on Google.

In 2004, Schwartz was asked by the British government to chair an inquiry into university admissions. This inquiry became the focus of much political interest and media coverage. The Schwartz report was completed in September 2004 and its recommendations were far-reaching and controversial. They were seen as giving preference to the disadvantaged but they were accepted by the government and put into practice. The reports can be found at [www.admissions-review.org.uk] See also [www.buzzle.com/editorials/5-8-2004-53902.asp] [http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityaccess/story/0,10670,1154380,00.html] [http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article54549.ece] . Schwartz also led a national project on ethics for universities sponsored by the Council for Industry and Higher Education and Universities UK [www.cihe-uk.com] .

A tribunal found Schwartz guilty of victimisation after he publicly implied that two members of Brunel staff had behaved dishonestly (see Times Higher Ed, 7th Dec 2007 [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=311363] ). In 2005, after the two staff members had lost claims of race discrimination against the university, Professor Schwartz sent two circulars around Brunel criticising the pair. Bemoaning the expense of defending the cases, he referred to the two as having made "unwarranted demands for money" and described their claims as "unfounded", "unmeritorious" and "futile". The tribunal concluded that the claimants' sense of grievance was reasonable and justified: "Professor Schwartz's assertion that the claimants had made unwarranted demands for money was an implicit assertion of dishonesty on their part," it said. The earlier tribunal, while dismissing the cases of discrimination, had accepted that they were made in good faith. The tribunal awarded the two claimants £7,500 each as compensation for injury to their feelings, and said that, as Professor Schwartz and the university were equally responsible, so each should be liable for half of each award. In 2006, Schwartz left Brunel, returning to Australia to take up the position of Vice Chancellor at Macquarie University [http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1708667,00.html] where he has begun to make similar changes to those imposed at Brunel. Arguing that he seeks to refocus the university around peaks of research excellence, he said that this would mean "moving from teaching the subjects teachers want to teach to the subjects students want to learn; ensuring institutional success rather than ensuring morale; and decentralising responsibility and accountability" [http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0%2C20867%2C21336766-12332%2C00.html?from=public_rss] . So far, he has added more than 40 new research active staff, including a new group of postgraduate medical researchers, attracted hundreds of millions in new development funds and seen the university move up the Shanghai Jiao Tong ratings. In May, 2008, he announced a search for an additional 43 staff. But some researchers have left (including the move of the climate change research group, led by Andy Pitman, to UNS). Schwartz has had to deal with a difficult legacy ( [http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/black-start-to-uni-revolution/2007/05/12/1178899160440.html] [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21259197-12332,00.html] [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22167840-12332,00.html?from=public_rss] ; and run-ins with the former Vice-Chancellor, Di Yerbury. [http://www.plugger.com.au/index.asp?q=Steven+Schwartz]

Schwartz is a member of the Fulbright Commission and the advisory boards of the Asia Society, the Global Foundation and the Centre for Independent Studies. He is also the Australian government's representative on the Council of the University of the Pacific.

Books: Author

Schwartz, S. & Johnson, J. H. "Psychopathology of childhood: An experimental approach". New York: Pergamon, 1981. Schwartz, S. "Measuring reading competence". New York: Plenum, 1984. Schwartz, S. & Johnson, J. H. "Psychopathology of childhood". Revised second edition. New York: Pergamon, 1985. Schwartz, S. & Griffin, T. "Medical thinking: The psychology of medical judgment and decision-making". New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986. (Italian Edition: Bollati Boringhieri Editore, 1991). Schwartz, S. "Classic studies in psychology". Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield, 1986. (German Edition: Beltz-Verlag, 1991).

Schwartz, S. "Pavlov's heirs". London & Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1987.

External links

* [http://www.murdoch.edu.au/vco/secretariat/records/vicechancellor.html History of VCs at Murdoch]
* [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/wall-street-comes-to-campus/2005/09/30/1127804663283.html Sydney Morning Herald Article on Prof Schwartz]
* [http://www.vc.mq.edu.au His homepage at Macquarie University]
* [http://wpmu.innovation.cfl.mq.edu.au/stevenschwartz/ His Blog]