Go8 Media Release: Group of Eight Farewell University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor

December 5, 2016

The Group of Eight wishes retiring University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor, Professor Warren Bebbington well in

his retirement early next year.

Go8 Chief Executive, Vicki Thomson said Professor Bebbington has been a tireless advocate for a university

sector where able students can always enter and succeed, whatever their economic circumstances.

“This in part has been driven by Professor Bebbington’s own experiences, which he wrote about recently for

the Group of Eight.”

Describing his first visit to a university as a child, he noted that ‘As a child from a labourer’s family with no

background of university study, it made an indelible impression on me, and sowed in my mind the first seed of

awareness of what a university symbolised.”

“It was this early experience which has shaped the reform agenda that Professor Bebbington has overseen at

the University of Adelaide and that he has advocated for on the national stage through the Group of Eight and

in his role as a Board member of Universities Australia,” Ms Thomson said.

The University of Adelaide Council has appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Mike Brooks as

Interim Vice-Chancellor from 1 May 2017.

Contact: Vicki Thomson, Group of Eight Chief Executive on +61 438 047 155