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A very rewarding life

As vice-chancellor of Monash University, Professor Peter Darvall is making his final contribution to the "rich community" he has been a part of for the past 32 years. DAVID BRUCE reports.

Vice-chancellor Professor Peter Darvall, who has devoted his 32-year career to teaching, research and community involvement at Monash. Photo: Greg Ford

Monash University vice-chancellor Professor Peter Darvall has surveyed glaciers in Alaska, worked as a site engineer for an archaeological expedition in the Nile Delta, earned a PhD from Princeton, held a succession of leadership positions at Monash and is conversant in Spanish.

That may not be the conventional route to a vice-chancellor's job, but Professor Darvall's arrival at Monash was no less ordinary.

In the middle of March 1970, the new engineering academic was hitchhiking down Dandenong Road in Melbourne to his first day of work at Monash University. A student in an old car stopped and asked where he was heading. "Monash," said the engineer. "That's lucky, because that's where I'm going," said the second-year medical student.

Assuming that his passenger was also a student, the driver filled the short journey with tales of what a great university Monash was and, upon arrival at the Clayton campus, conducted an impromptu tour of the campus for his new acquaintance.

Today that engineer, Professor Peter Darvall, occupies the vice-chancellor's office, having studied, lectured, researched and administered his way from tutor to dean of the Faculty of Engineering, to deputy vice-chancellor (Research and Development) to, in 2002, vice-chancellor and president.

And what of the medical student? "I never met him again," says Professor Darvall. "But I have a fond memory of a generous-spirited fellow, and it was a good introduction to what I came to know as a warm and lively place. I have always hoped that he is a successful and contented surgeon, perhaps."

Professor Darvall's hopes for the young medical student reflect his hopes for all the Monash students he has seen in more than 30 years at the university.

"Monash people are making a contribution to public life every day. I get a lift every time I see a Monash person on the TV, on the radio or in the papers. That's because I see yet another of my colleagues or former students presenting some expert opinion in the service of the community.

"It is a very rewarding life working in a university and, in particular, working as the leader of a university with such a wealth of wonderful research, teaching and community involvement among its staff, students and graduates."

Following the departure of the previous vice-chancellor in July, Professor Darvall was chosen by the University Council to lead the university until a longer-term replacement could be made. "This is the last stage in my career where I can make a final contribution to Monash," he says. "Universities are said to be almost ungovernable, but that's the charm of them. There is the freedom to have ideas, to inquire and to contribute to the community.

"The best thing about Monash University is that it is a rich community of people with very strong ideas who are given enormous freedom to present those ideas. I see it having a wonderful future in the same way as it has had a wonderful past."

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