Q Do you yet have any particular plans for UNE?

A I'll put my toe in the water first, talk with the academic and general staff about where they think things are at and I will take advice from them. I have looked pretty closely at their strategic planning and I think they've got it right. The directions in which they are wanting to take the university, on the face of it seem to me to be very plausible.

Q Did the governance turmoil experienced by UNE over the past 18 months concern you?

A It did and when I started to look at this [position of Vice-Chancellor] as a possibility I certainly investigated it. I have to say I have been very impressed with what I've found, particularly with your new Chancellor who, in my view, really understands the difference between governance and management, but also with the team he has put around him, within the university and also on the council. So I really feel that UNE has learnt from what happened and I think they have got it right.

Q Are regional universities facing tougher challenges than their city counterparts?

A Interestingly, I think that the toughest challenge is going to be faced by what I call the outer metropolitan universities. The inner city universities and the regionals, if they get it right, are better positioned than the outer metropolitans. In this competition for student volume, the winners will be the inner city universities - those that are more prestigious and on the end of the transport lines - and the regionals, if they work out how to take advantage of the opportunities to take students from anywhere.

Q Do you see particular advantages in your company director positions, given that the V-C today is as much a business manager as an academic manager?

A There is no question about that, so I hope so. V-Cs now have to be entrepreneurial and they need to understand that they are running a business. The old days of it being an elevated academic position, have sherry at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, those days are gone. V-Cs do have to have an eye to education as a market and how they can build their business. I have some experience of that, I don't pretend to be an expert, but I am appreciative of my experience in the boards on which I've been.

Q Is there a need for universities to investigate more non-government sources of income?

A Yes, but we have to be careful. One of the strengths of UNE is that it has done well, survived and frankly prospered, with primarily government funded places as its main business. Some universities have pursued international students aggressively to diversify their revenue, and I think they've got themselves into trouble as a result. If you become too reliant on international students then all those problems that you read about in the newspapers will come to your doorstep. Yes, we do need to diversify our revenue strengths, I don't deny that, but I think that UNE is well positioned because it knows it can be viable even though it knows it is reliant on government funding. Those universities that have huge numbers of international students - it's really quite an irony - they are being accused of being too vulnerable because they are too exposed to the international market.

Q Do you believe your academic background might appear 'soft' given that it contrasts with that of former V-Cs?

A My academic research has taken me into the Heroin Unit at Pentridge Prison, it's taken me into some of the most indescribably abusive circumstances that you can imagine, and I find it incredible that someone would regard that as 'soft'. My research has been in some of society's most intractable problems - how do you deal with prisoners who have murdered people because of drugs, how do you deal with people who have serially abused their own children? If that's 'soft' then give me a laboratory bench and a test tube any day.

Q What experience do you have of regional universities?

A I started my academic career at James Cook University in Townsville, and I was there for two or three years, then did two or three years in Launceston at the University of Tasmania. I loved those experiences in a way that you can't match at big city universities. The thing about regionals is that, not only do you make a major contribution to the economic viability of the regions, but the people there take pride in us and they cherish universities in a way that city universities take for granted.

Q What are your first impressions of the campus and the city?

A Love it. I spent three years at Toronto right down town, right in the heart of the city at the University of Toronto, a huge city, and after three and a half years there I went to Melbourne where I've just spent four years right down town again. And you know, I just got sick of it. So we bought a house out in the boondocks, about an hour and a half out of Melbourne, and Armidale is really like it. I'm looking forward to it.

Q Can you tell us a bit about your personal background?

A I was born in Melbourne, bred in Adelaide. I come from a pretty working class family, my father was a wood machinist and my mother worked night-shift at a plastics factory. I went through school, got scholarships and a pretty good score. When I finished school I got a scholarship to study Law at the University of Adelaide but I gave it up to join the Jesuit Order, where I spent the best part of eight years studying stuff which, let's face it, wasn't that useful to me when I came out. My wife Mary is a schoolteacher and my son Daniel, 23, did his first degree in Neuro Science and is now doing a graduate medical degree at the University of Melbourne.

Q What do you do in your 'spare time'?

A I have three passions - cooking, Australian Rules football (North Melbourne supporter) and music. But I will have to learn to love rugby, I'm told.