LSBU to OU: Dave Phoenix named Open University vice-chancellor

Dave Phoenix is swapping London for Milton Keynes, as the next vice-chancellor of the Open University.

Professor Phoenix, vice-chancellor of London South Bank University since 2014, will move to the UK’s distance learning institution in July.

He will succeed Tim Blackman, who was originally due to retire next May, but then stood down with immediate effect in October to focus on cancer treatment. The OU is currently being led by deputy vice-chancellor Josie Fraser.

Professor Phoenix has won plaudits for LSBU’s takeover of Lambeth College and creation of a new technical college, school and sixth form, offering a model for cross-tertiary integration that could prove attractive to ministers focused on the skills agenda and potential efficiency savings, too.

But the institution has faced financial challenges of late, announcing scores of redundancies earlier this year in a move which led to LSBU staff passing a vote of no confidence in Professor Phoenix.

Financial challenges will loom large at the OU, where Professor Phoenix studied for an MBA early in his academic career.

The institution reported a £10.3 million operating deficit in its 2023-24 accounts, following a £25.1 million shortfall the year before, as student enrolments continued to shrink from a pandemic-era peak.

Professor Phoenix will also have to deal with a continuing dispute with the University and College Union over the transfer of more than associate lecturers onto permanent contracts, with around 20 staffers facing redundancy after refusing to sign new contracts would see their pay cut.

There are also lingering tensions at the OU over the departure of Jo Phoenix, a former professor of criminology, who won an employment tribunal against the institution after judges found that she had been forced to quit because of the “hostile environment” that confronted her gender-critical views.

Major opportunities could be offered, however, by plans to move the OU from its home since 1969 on the outskirts of Milton Keynes into the city centre, with in-person teaching being considered for the first time.

And Professor Phoenix’s expertise across the tertiary education landscape could prove valuable as the institution seeks to reposition itself ahead of the introduction in England of the lifelong learning entitlement, which will offer everyone up to four years of loan funding for modular-level study throughout their adult lives.

The biochemist, who was deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire before he joined LSBU, said the OU was “quite rightly recognised as a national treasure, and I have admired it throughout my life”.

“It helps to transform people’s lives, and it epitomises opportunity, as I know from the time I spent studying at the OU in support of my own career development. I’m looking forward to working together with colleagues, students and external partners, to create the next exciting chapter in our story,” Professor Phoenix said.

“By building on all its success to date plus the OU’s global reputation for innovation and societal impact, we will work together to deliver a growth strategy for the future – one that helps to address the inequalities present in the 21st century head on.”

Malcolm Sweeting, the chair of the OU’s council, said that Professor Phoenix would bring “outstanding leadership credentials, commitment to educational access, and a deep understanding of the evolving challenges in the higher education sector”.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com