Dear colleagues,

With 2018 already well underway, I am pleased to welcome the Macquarie University community back to campus for the start of the new academic year. During the summer break or holiday season, I do hope that you have found opportunities for personal time and for family and friends. I am also very grateful to those who have remained on deck for Session 3 and other work surrounding the break. The year is accelerating quickly already and portends to be very exciting, providing new opportunities and doubtless some challenges as well.

As you return there will be new faces in the University community, both students of course as well as academic and professional staff joining us. The turn of the new year brings an influx of new intellect, energy and curiosity to our community. Please do join me in making all our new students and staff feel welcomed.

As you move around campus, you will witness the acceleration of the campus redevelopment based upon several years of careful and deliberate planning. The focus of all the works in progress is upon improving the amenities for our students and staff, enabling the delivery of more contemporarily inviting and effective spaces and work experience for our students and staff along with the facilities for discovery and scholarship.

The MYEFO changes for universities announced by government in late 2017 are one of the challenges we will face together in this year and in the years ahead. I am already working with the Executive Group on modulating our response to those policy changes as the regulatory environment has shifted. We will be examining structural issues in the budget assumptions to which we have become accustomed and will focus on how to chart a pathway through these changes while staying true to our purpose as a university of service and engagement.

In facing a year with some challenges, both foreseen and unexpected, we should be guided by the framework laid out in Our University: A Framing of Futures. Last year, we reviewed that framework and determined that it remains current and provides the necessary scaffolding for our work, decision-making and prioritisation.

September 2017 marked the end of the fifth year of my service as your Vice-Chancellor. It remains the greatest privilege of my professional life to lead this remarkable community; I look forward to the year ahead working with you all and the journey to our bright future together.

With warm good wishes,

SBD