Higher Education Patterns Across Cultures with Wyatt R Hume

Tuesday, September 8, 2015
12:00 - 1:00PM
Room 768 Evans Hall, CSHE Library (map)
Wyatt R (Rory) Hume
Former Provost and Executive Vice President, University of California

University and college quality is very probably influenced strongly by the nature, structure, and practices of their governance.  In this seminar the proposition will be examined that the nature, structures and practices of university and college governance tend to be largely determined by the history and culture of the society in which the institution residesIf this is correct, by understanding the broader culture, and then by focusing on optimizing governance practices relative to that culture, we can optimize quality, whatever the culture. Universities and colleges in the US may be fortunate in this regard.  Because of the nature of the country's founding, principles of governance were written in clear form in founding documents, and are broadly understood.  Many societies do not have that clarity, while some operate under profoundly different governance principles.

BIOGRAPHY

Newest Faculty Affiliate for Center for Studies in Higher Education, following service as Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at UCLA, Dr. Hume was appointed Executive Vice Chancellor for that campus in 1998.   He then served from 2002 as President of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, then from 2005 as Vice President for Health Affairs then also as Provost, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the ten-campus University of California System.  

Dr. Hume retired from the University of California in 2008 and was then for four years Provost of the United Arab Emirates University. He was appointed Executive Director, Education, Training and Development, Research and Development Division, Qatar Foundation in 2012.  He retired from that position in December 2014.

Born in Australia, Dr. Hume qualified first in clinical dentistry in 1968 and then completed a PhD in human physiology and pharmacology in 1972, both at the University of Adelaide.  The same university awarded him the degree of Doctor of Dental Science for published work in 1990.  He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCLA School of Medicine in 1975 before joining UCLA’s Faculty of Dentistry in 1977.