Meet our Members: Simon Jennings

What is your higher education history?

After briefly working at Sheffield University Library after school, I studied English at the University of Oxford and then a Master’s at Sheffield University (Librarianship) followed by a Master’s (Public Relations) at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, while working in Scotland. 

My career in HE began in the world of digital libraries with Jisc. From there I went on to run the VC’s Office at the University of Edinburgh, where I became Deputy Director of Planning. A period as Deputy Director of Universities Scotland was followed by director roles with responsibility for planning, governance and analytics at Strathclyde and Lancaster universities. I headed to Cork & Kerry in October last year to take up the role of Chief Corporate Officer here at MTU.

What does your current role and remit encompass?

I’ve responsibility for governance, the Governing Body, strategy, HEA (our regulator) relations, risk, compliance, information governance, legal, insurance and planning and currently the transformation/merger. I’ll also be establishing an analytics function.

What does a typical day look like for you in your role?

Like any member of AHUA, it’s pretty unpredictable! It’s an exciting time for MTU – the University was established in 2021 and, in addition to concluding a related merger process and awaiting the arrival of the final five of my executive team colleagues currently being recruited, I am also establishing the brand new Corporate Services function.

What do you find most enjoyable and/or challenging in your role?

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect to date has been the warmth and the calibre of my colleagues. That, or discovering the breadth and excellence of what the university delivers across six campuses in Cork and Kerry. With 18,000 students and subjects stretching from photonics, through marine engineering, music, architecture business and nursing to fine art, the place has a subject breadth and offers qualifications from apprenticeship to PhD levels.

What are the current challenges for your institution?

As a new university, further enhancing our brand recognition outside of Ireland is key, as is growing our research endeavour from the €29M it is at present. Ireland’s seen something equivalent to the UK’s ‘1992 moment’, with a number of former institutes of technology merging to become technological universities (TUs). So, there are sector issues to grapple with, including developing Irish universities’ accommodation offering, establishing the sector representative body for TUs and implementing necessary workforce changes identified in a 2022 OECD  report ‘A review of technological university academic career paths, contracts and organisation in Ireland’

What do you think are the biggest changes ahead for higher education?

It would be very easy to say changes driven by AI, by geopolitics and related issues of public financing. However,  having worked in institutions which have moved at very different speeds, it may be the pace and agility with which the sector (in every jurisdiction) will need to move. This isn’t just about the challenges and pressures of the wider world but dealing with the rapidly increasing speed at which new knowledge is generated and the implications for how we develop graduates with the skills and approach that employers in every sector will be looking for in their workforce of the future.

Who has inspired you and why?

My parents, who were both the first in their family to study at university. Dad became a Professor of Medical Microbiology, and Mum studied from home via the OU when I was young, going on to become an FE lecturer in Feminism. From them I got a passion for education, but also values around equality, diversity and inclusion. Only later in life have I realised the extent to which my views were shaped by my Dad’s PhD students from around the world visiting the house and seeing my Mum’s studies redefining her sense of who she was, what she could achieve – her commitment to gender equality continues to inspire me. 

As someone with HE experience in both the UK and Ireland, what do you think UK institutions could learn from the Irish model and vice versa?

There are some clear structural, funding and policy differences, not least the proximity to the state, which is greater in Ireland, particularly when compared to England. I think there are probably aspects of the UK approach to compliance, reporting and statistics which would enable Irish universities’ governing bodies to better focus on strategic matters. Equally, there are aspects around the role sport and the arts play in the wider campus staff and student life that I sense are more broadly embedded across Ireland’s universities than they perhaps are in the UK and bring real cultural cohesion and identity to campuses.

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