Edith Cowan University has been home to many a scholar over its several existing and developing campuses, across the southern hemisphere. This trans-continental community stems from ECU’s global vision to provide steadfast education to any student ready and willing. At the helm of this vision is current Vice-Chancellor (more commonly known as VC), Professor Steve Chapman, a mysterious and unknown figure to most students, but a near-decade long patriarch and key contributor to the ECU community.
The VC is a decorated scholar, boasting an impressive career and an array of qualifications and commendations – he is literally a Commander of the British Order (meaning he at one point probably met the late-great, Queen Liz).
He has also held many positions within the tertaiary education sphere, having been the Vice-Chancellor and Pricipal of Heriot-Watt University, the Vice-Principal of the University of Edinburgh, and Chairman of the Funding Policy Committee of Universities, Scotland.
With over 200 scientific papers, an Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry and numerous key-note speeches under his belt, what more could we as a student community ask for in a leader?
Since joining ECU in 2015, the VC has been across the opening of new campus buildings, the establishment of intercontinental campuses (shout out to ECU Sri Lanka), ECU’s increasing world unviersity rankings, the highly-anticipated ECU City campus, and most notably, guiding the university through the Covid-19 pandemic.
So why are you, the reader, being subjected to this piece on someone you probably barely know? Well, recently the VC announced his intentions to retire later next year. With his exit, a new VC will be elected to carry ECU through its next phase of life.
But for a student like me who has been at ECU for the last 5 years, and who will soon be exiting the tertiarty world. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to the VC for his contributions to university life. It hasnt always been easy on us, but in the end, it has been worth it. So thank you VC for the last decade, and good luck to whoever comes next – you have some pretty big shoes to fill!