Fraser Woodburn, 1951-2021

An administrator who spent nearly three decades on university executive teams, including 17 years as secretary of the Open University, has died.

Alexander Fraser Woodburn was born in Ayr in 1951, one of twins to a civil servant father and a full-time mother, with two older sisters. When he was five, the family moved to Edinburgh. After completing a BSc in mathematical physics at the University of Edinburgh (1969-73), Mr Woodburn started his career in local government before moving into higher education with a series of administrative posts at the universities of Stirling (1977-80) and Edinburgh (1980-88).

His first senior role was as academic registrar at the University of Hull (1988-92), which was followed by a spell as registrar and secretary at the University of Essex (1992-98).

It was in 1999 that Mr Woodburn joined the OU as secretary, where he would remain for the rest of his career until his retirement in 2015. At the OU, he oversaw a wide range of functions including estates, finance, marketing, recruitment, human resources, information technology, fundraising, equality and diversity, and academic regulations. In total, Mr Woodburn was responsible for about 1,200 staff.

Colleagues credited Mr Woodburn with helping to steer the OU through some turbulent times, notably the 2012 reforms to tuition fees and funding in England, during which the institution successfully made the case for part-time students to have access to loans on a par with full-time students. Mr Woodburn developed the institution’s market and financial sustainability strategy in response to the reforms.

Mr Woodburn also served on the board of FutureLearn, the OU-owned online learning platform, as well as holding several external appointments: he was a member of the audit committee of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (2004-10) and later served on the governing body of the University of Suffolk.

Tim Blackman, the OU’s current vice-chancellor, said he “saw at first hand [Mr Woodburn’s] huge contribution to the university and the respect and affection in which he was held”.

“Fraser will be remembered by those of us who knew him as someone of immense ability who was completely dedicated to the OU,” Professor Blackman said.

Mr Woodburn died on 11 November 2021 and is survived by his wife, Anne De Roeck, emerita professor of computing at the OU, who served as dean of the institution’s Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics until 2016. He is also survived by two children, two stepchildren and three grandchildren.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com