Anglophone universities have contributed to their own image problems by failing to perform at the level warranted by their privileged autonomy, according to a vice-chancellor with leadership history in three countries.

Dawn Freshwater said universities had weakened their standing by crying poor while possessing a degree of self-determination beyond the dreams of most institutions, and by tolerating shortcomings in governance and academic standards.

Freshwater has concluded a six-year stint at the helm of the University of Auckland, following terms as vice-chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) and pro vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds. She said it was telling that universities in New Zealand, Australia and the UK held less cachet with the public than their counterparts in Africa, Indonesia, the Middle East and Vietnam, where institutional autonomy was more circumscribed.

“There’s still…huge respect for higher education in those emerging economies – significant respect for expertise, wisdom, higher learning and the professor. There’s something about the level of autonomy [we have] that also brings with it a degree of scepticism.”

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Freshwater said Anglo universities were highly responsible and regulated “in the main”, but the public had lost sight of this as the sector “cried too hard” for money while presiding over perceptions of grade inflation, nepotism, underpayment of staff and overpayment of executives.

“We have government support and…the autonomy to be creative [and] somewhat determine our own destiny,” Freshwater said. “With that autonomy comes a level of responsibility. Maybe people don’t see us as being responsible any more.”

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She stressed that she was not advocating reductions in universities’ autonomy, but said they needed to try harder. “We need to work with our communities and government and industry to understand what it is that has been lost.”

Her term at Auckland ended much as it started, with the government seeking university counsel to help address an externally imposed crisis. In 2020, it was Covid-19 and advice around infection management and vaccine uptake. In 2026, it is fuel conservation during the US-Iran war.

Freshwater said universities were rarely considered an essential service despite being enlisted in disaster response efforts. Nevertheless, they were buffeted by the short-term political imperatives that often accompanied such disasters.

In the face of this, vice-chancellors needed to play the long game as leaders of institutions that had endured countless such disasters. “We’re constantly in crisis, actually. Good strategic leaders know where to prioritise their attention and energy and what to focus on, and what to let go of.

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“Whether it’s…Covid, a strike, pro-Palestinian protests or a war, you’re always going back and asking yourself: what are our values? What do we stand for? What’s the right thing to do here? It’s very easy to respond to the immediacy in front of us because that’s what we’re seeing in our political leaders. As a vice-chancellor, you really have to be able to work out what the most immediate things are, but stay focused on the big picture.”

Freshwater said university strategies, which articulated those core values, should be treated as almost “eternal” documents. Operational plans should be updated to address emerging crises, but strategic plans warranted a “light touch”. Routine rewrites by new leaders were “completely unnecessary”, she said. “So much that’s already working within institutions…can be enhanced before you even start to think about refreshing any new strategies.”

Freshwater leaves Auckland in “the best shape” with a strong leadership team, a surplus, record enrolments and a higher ranking than when she arrived. But she said recruitment of vice-chancellors was becoming increasingly difficult, as universities and other public institutions struggled to find people prepared to weather “misinformation” and attacks of a frequency once reserved for politicians. “You’re constantly…responding to things that are completely irrelevant.”

Nevertheless, she maintains honorary professorships at Auckland, Leeds and UWA, along with a part-time directorship with the Worldwide Universities Network, some Hong Kong-based global international advisory work and some Australian-funded research into youth mental health. And she would consider any request to head a university while it searched for a new vice-chancellor.

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“There’s always a bigger yes inside that drives you along,” she said. “I’ve…had some of the best times. Global experience with leaders of the world; trade delegations; working closely on defence issues. How could I have ever imagined doing that as a part-time undergraduate student working in health and studying to take my PhD part-time? What a privilege!”

She said university leadership was “pretty tough” at present. “But when hasn’t it been tough? And there are people doing it tougher. Our role is to make sure that we clear the path, so that people who have not had opportunities are given choices in their life.”

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com