11 March 2004 Professor Field Named New Lincoln Vice-Chancellor

Professor Roger Field of Christchurch has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Lincoln University and he will take up the position on 1 April.

Professor Field has been the University's Acting Vice-Chancellor since the retirement of Dr Frank Wood on health grounds in October last year, and he has also served in that capacity on two other occasions.

Announcing the appointment, Chancellor Margaret Austin says that Professor Field comes to the position with an outstanding combination of academic and administrative experience at a senior level and as a notable contributor to tertiary education in New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

The appointment was unanimously supported by the University Council and Mrs Austin said the selection process was robust and comprehensive and included consultation with groups drawn from all sectors within the University.

"Professor Field is respected as an educator, researcher, manager and leader and he has a reputation for decisiveness, clarity and excellence," said Mrs Austin.

"He is a strategic thinker whose management strengths are recognised by his peers and by the University Council.

"He has played a major role in the development and implementation of recent organisational and structural reviews at Lincoln University from which significant successes have already flowed, such as an increased student enrolment in this first semester of 2004."

A former Professor of Plant Science at Lincoln University and Head of the Plant Science Department, Professor Field moved into top university management in the mid-1990s, first as Pro Vice-Chancellor and since 1998 as full-time Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Field's knowledge of Lincoln is extensive, says Mrs Austin, and dates from his appointment in 1970 as a Lecturer in Plant Science, with particular responsibility for plant physiology.

He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1976, Associate Professor in 1984 and full Professor in 1986.

As an academic, Professor Field's undergraduate and postgraduate level teaching included applied plant and crop physiology, physiological aspects of genetics and plant breeding, weed science and agronomy and he utilised his extensive research programmes in these areas to inspire his lectures, laboratory classes and field work.

In his time at Lincoln Professor Field has served on numerous administrative bodies including the Examinations Board, Research Committee, Professorial Board and Postgraduate Studies Committee.

In the past he was active too in the Association of University Teachers (now Association of University Staff, AUS) serving as both a Lincoln branch chairman and member of the national executive.

Professor Field was a founder member of the New Zealand Society of Plant Physiologists and is a past president of that society.

As Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Field represented Lincoln University in numerous negotiations associated with recent Government reforms in tertiary education. For example he chaired the New Zealand Vice Chancellors' Committee's University Entrance group at the time of the introduction of the NCEA, and he is currently Chair of the Committee on University Academic Programmes.

Born in Britain, Roger Field completed a joint honours degree in botany and zoology at the University of Hull, followed by a PhD, also at Hull, studying the physiological mechanisms of herbicide and plant growth regulator translocation in plants.

He becomes Lincoln University's third Vice-Chancellor and 10^th head since the institution was founded in 1878 as a school of agriculture.

"Lincoln University has a history and culture of inclusion and camaraderie for which it is well known," said Mrs Austin.

"The new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Field, inherits this legacy and can be expected to enhance and develop it in the years to come."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand