Civil servant to run Charles Sturt University

Another Australian university has chosen a leader from outside academia, after Charles Sturt University (CSU) named former senior civil servant Renée Leon its new vice-chancellor.

Ms Leon, who headed the federal Department of Human Services until its restructure in early 2020, will join recently installed University of Sydney boss Mark Scott and the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Francis Campbell as vice-chancellors without doctorates.

Ms Leon has spearheaded government responses to difficult social issues including sexual assault, disaster relief and debt recovery. She now takes the helm at a multi-campus university that has seen its own share of problems through coronavirus, a regulatory crackdown, the premature departure of its former vice-chancellor and a public falling-out with an influential member of parliament.

She said the new role would provide plenty of opportunities to put her experience to good use: “Universities are, in many ways, like the things I’ve done before. They’re large institutions with multiple stakeholders and complex regulatory environments.”

Ms Leon has run a strategic advice consultancy since her ousting from the Department of Human Services, which she led from 2017 until its absorption into the Social Services Department in 2020. She helped develop systems to tackle challenges that peaked soon after her departure, as Australians reeled from bushfires and the Covid-19 outbreak.

“Human Services was able to rapidly respond to all of those people suddenly needing unemployment support because of all of the work that had been done while I was still there to transform services online – which was pretty convenient just before a pandemic,” Ms Leon said.

She oversaw changes to the “Robodebt” automated debt recovery scheme, which was later found to have wrongfully extracted A$751 million (£395 million) from social security beneficiaries. “It was already well under way when I got there,” she said.

“We didn’t know that it would turn out that the debts didn’t have a valid basis. Once that became apparent, the programme stopped. I’m pleased that the government apologised and paid the money back.”

Ms Leon was also CEO of the Department of Employment under the Abbott and Turnbull Liberal governments, and chief operating officer of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Attorney General’s Department under the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments.

She also served as chief executive of the Australian Capital Territory’s Department of Justice and Community Safety. Ms Leon said it was “helpful” for universities to have leaders who understood key departments and how to “interact with them effectively”.

“For example, Charles Sturt has a research partnership with the Department of Agriculture [aimed at] drought-proofing Australia’s agriculture and food supply,” she continued. “It’s helpful that I know the secretary and understand how the department thinks and works. It’s the same with the Department of Education and the Department of Industry – I’ve got personal connections, but also knowledge of the way the departments of state work and the way governments think.”

Ms Leon has studied at the Australian National University and at Harvard University, and she won a Menzies Foundation scholarship to study international law at the University of Cambridge. She returns to university, this time as vice-chancellor, on 1 September.

It is not yet clear whether she will assume the designation “professor”, like her colleagues at Sydney and Notre Dame Australia. CSU’s council is still considering her title.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com