Episode 6: Golden Governance and the Registrarial Bucket List

This episode of University Registrars Talking About Stuff finds me talking stuff with Lucinda Parr who is Registrar and University Secretary at the University of Bristol. Looking back to the beginning of her career Lucinda recalls working as a departmental administrator at Goldsmiths to help fund her masters and enjoying it so much that she ended up staying. She then moved to a new role working with the Warden on developing the institution's new strategic plan. Lucinda stresses the value to her career of her governance involvement in her Goldsmiths roles and is a passionate advocate for its importance in university life.

She did eventually leave Goldsmiths to take up the role of Secretary and Registrar at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she encountered a very different culture, real research intensity and an extremely clear and distinctive mission. She then joined the University of Bristol, another very different kind of institution which has grown and changed significantly in her time there and has plenty more developments planned. Lucinda has also recently been through the relatively rare experience of managing the appointment of a new vice-chancellor and then supporting their arrival, something she describes as being very much on her registrarial bucket list. 

We also talk about some of the challenges faced by universities both external and internally generated and Lucinda observes that institutions often have lots of interesting ideas for innovation but then struggle to stop doing things. Finally we discuss the value of the experience of serving on external boards and Lucinda recalls the distinctive challenges of dealing with a student occupation of a governing body meeting.