New officers for Victoria University Council

New officers for Victoria University Council

The Council of Victoria University of Wellington has today appointed two new officers to lead it in the New Year.

The Council today appointed Emeritus Professor Tim Beaglehole as Chancellor and Ian McKinnon as Pro Chancellor, effective from 1 January 2005.

The Chancellor chairs the University Council, has a casting vote on tied issues and is responsible for providing leadership to Council in the execution of its governance responsibilities. As the University's ceremonial head, the Chancellor also presides at graduation ceremonies and, on behalf the Council, confers degrees. The Pro Chancellor is the Council's deputy chairperson and deputises for the Chancellor when required.

Professor Beaglehole, who has a Master of Arts degrees from the University of New Zealand and Cambridge University and a PhD from Cambridge, has had a long association with Victoria University as a student and member of the staff. He was a staff representative on the Victoria University Council, 1968-71 and 1982, and since 1999, has been a representative of alumni on the Council.

Professor Beaglehole was formerly a staff member of the former History Department, Warden of Weir House, Dean of Arts, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and is a life member of the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association. For over thirty years he was responsible for building the University’s collection of works of art. He was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard, 1965-66, and taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1978.

Professor Beaglehole was deputy chairman of the Council of the National Art Gallery (1979-92) and chairperson of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (1990-96).

Ian McKinnon was a student at Victoria in the 1960s, graduating with a BCom in Economics. He also served on the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association Executive, becoming Men's Vice-President in 1966.

Mr McKinnon's career has been in the independent school sector. He first taught at King's College in Auckland, where he was also a boarding housemaster, and then at Eton College in the UK, where he subsequently returned as Lower Master, i.e. Deputy Headmaster, in 1988.

He was Headmaster of Wanganui Collegiate School (1980–1988) and of Scots College (1992-2002). During his time in the school sector he served on various government committees on education and also on both the Executive of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools, of which he was President (1998-2000), and the Executive of the Independent Schools Council.

Mr McKinnon is also Chairman of the Council of the Wellington College of Education, which will merge with Victoria University on 1 January 2005. Mr McKinnon is a member of ERO Advisory Council on Quality in Education and has served and does serve on various other bodies, including for a number of years the Waitangi (now Link) Foundation for UK - NZ relations.

For his work in the UK on the NZ 1990 Commemorations he was awarded the NZ 1990 Commemoration Medal. He received the QSO in 1991 for services to NZ in the UK and in 1992 was made a Freeman of the City of London. He is a Justice of the Peace. In 2004, he was elected to the Wellington City Council.

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