Provost
About the Provost
The Provost is the University's Chief Academic Officer, and is standing deputy to the Vice-Chancellor. The University Provost is Professor Margaret Sheil, the most recent Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Research Council.
The Provost leads and supports the development, delivery and excellence of the University's curriculum, student experience and scholarly information services. The Provost has responsibility for the implementation and coordination of the Melbourne Curriculum, the Melbourne Student Services Model and Melbourne's Scholarly Information Future. The Provost acts as Vice-Chancellor when the Vice-Chancellor is away from the University.
The word 'provost' comes from the post-classical Latin term propositus and its use to describe a head of a college or university was first recorded c.1547 in Britain [reference]. The provost was generally a person appointed to preside over, or superintend an institution as the representative of its head.
At the University of Melbourne, the Provost is the standing deputy to the Vice Chancellor.
Professor Margaret Sheil
Professor Sheil has been appointed to the role of Provost at the University of Melbourne following an international search and selection process, and began in late April, 2012.
Professor Sheil, has advanced the cause of research nationally and internationally through her work on the Research Council, where she was responsible for the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative.
She is a member of several national and international research bodies including the Cooperative Research Centres Committee, the Prime Minister's Science Innovation and Engineering Council, the National Research Infrastructure Council and the Board of the Australia-India Council.
From 2002 to 2007 Professor Sheil was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Wollongong (UOW), following 12 years there as a senior academic and then Dean of Science.
Before joining UOW, Professor Sheil held positions as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University and the University of Utah, in the US.