With 2 years plus to go VC Deep Saini is giving it away

Professor Saini announced Friday that he will leave in December, to move to Halifax in Nova Scotia where he will become president of Dalhousie U.

While lamentations were loud on campus Friday, they were not universal. Certainly Professor Saini’s 2017 plan to make UoC a university embedded in the life of the city was well regarded CMM October 22 2017).  However,  not all staff were convinced by all his ideas on containing staff costs ( CMM February 21 2018). There was some scepticism at the announcement of a plan to amalgamate research institutes with faculties,  ( CMM March 9 2018) and a group of senior academics outright opposed his plan to lift research performance by hiring up to 50 assistant professors on a deliver or depart track (CMM October 19 2018).

Campus controversy aside however, he has done well enough to impress Dalhousie, which is a similar student size but rates higher on research. Dalhousie U is 347 in the world on this week’s headline Leiden ranking, while Uni Canberra did not make the cut. Both are in the 251-300 bracket in the Times Higher ranking.

He will certainly have big expectations to meet there – predecessor Richard Florizone left after five years of increasing student numbers and research growth to run a quantum computing lab.