Caroline McMillen has been vice-chancellor and president of the University of Newcastle, Australia, since October 2011.
She has dedicated almost three decades of her life to higher education, holding leadership roles across innovation, teaching and research and teaching. These include lecturing at Monash University, and professor, chair and head of the department of physiology at the University of Adelaide.
In 2005, she accepted the position of deputy vice-chancellor and vice-president (research and innovation) at the University of South Australia, a position she held until her move to Newcastle.
This keynote speech, on establishing a young and dynamic university, was delivered at the 2017 Times Higher Education Research Excellence Summit, hosted in partnership with China Medical University, Taiwan in July 2017.
