Dear students,
Although I’ve been working at DMU for a number of years in a variety of roles, I wanted to take this opportunity to formally introduce myself as the Interim Vice-Chancellor of our university.
I am incredibly honoured and excited to be in this position because I get to lead an institution where you, our students, go on to achieve life-transforming academic and personal success. My job is to provide an environment that continually supports you on that journey.
So I’d like to commit us as a university to always strive to offer the best student experience, teaching and research possible. My goal is simple, to work with everyone at DMU to positively impact your time at university and enable you to flourish in your future careers.
As a parent of two DMU students, I know first-hand the hard work, commitment, and passion it takes for students to achieve their degrees. Seeing them grow during their time at DMU filled me with immense pride and that’s a feeling I carry every day when I see students trying new things, learning new skills, overcoming challenges and building relationships that can last a lifetime.
This is why I intend to continually shine a light on students embracing and maximising the very best DMU can offer so it inspires others to achieve great things. These stories include teaching experiences that lead to great degree results, placements that provide the skills and competitive edge to land dream jobs or #DMUglobal trips which expand horizons. Some students are overcoming personal adversity with the help of our student services, others are growing and developing through sports activity, and many are making a difference to local and global communities through our volunteering schemes. I want to ensure you all have your own great stories to share in the weeks and months ahead.
As with any period of leadership change, I know the former Vice-Chancellor’s departure raised some queries which I’ve been happy to address as best I can. I recently met with student representatives at DSU to reaffirm a commitment for open communication with the student body on all subjects.
There are various ways that you can get in touch. You can speak to your course and elected representatives at DSU in person at the Campus Centre or via their email channel dsureception@dmu.ac.uk, and they can represent your views. You can also send an email to askus@dmu.ac.uk which will be shared with me and my team for a response. I look forward to hearing your views and ideas in the future.
Finally, I want to thank everyone for their support and well wishes during my first few weeks as Interim Vice-Chancellor. Let’s keep this dialogue going so we can build our future together.
Warm regards,
Professor Andy Collop
Interim Vice-Chancellor
Posted on Friday 1 March 2019