University focuses on course quality

Professor Susan Price has taken over as vice chancellor a year after the controversial departure of her predecessor Simon Lee amid allegations of bullying – which he had denied.

Under his leadership the university was set to change its name to Leeds Carnegie, the name given to its sporting partnerships with Leeds's rugby sides and Yorkshire County Cricket Club at Headingley.

But Prof Price said pursuing the name change was not one of her top priorities. She told the Yorkshire Post her main goals were to improve student satisfaction and to "refocus" on the university's teaching and learning, enterprise and research.

"One of our key priorities is to develop a new strategic plan. I am looking forward to start to engage with colleagues in developing a clear re-statement of our values," she said.

"A plan which focuses on our core priorities. They have to be about delivering a very high quality experience for our students and our staff, about engaging in really innovative learning and teaching and backing this up with high quality relevant research and enterprise.

"Changing the name is not a high priority of mine. I think the name of an institution is considerably less important than what it does. It is a conversation that we will return to at some point but it is not top of the list."

However Prof Price said improving the university's student satisfaction levels was a key target. Last year's National Student Survey revealed almost a third of Leeds Met students were not happy with the quality of their course – the worst score of any university in Yorkshire and one of the worst in the country.

Since Prof Lee's departure Leeds Met has been led by chief executive Dr Geoff Hitchins who has raised tuition fees from 2,000 to 3,312 in line with the rest of the country's higher education sector. Prof Price welcomed this decision and said Leeds Met should target financial support to students who need it most rather than providing "blanket support."

Under Prof Lee Leeds Met developed a series of high profile partnerships in sports and arts and Prof Price said she had no plans to put any of these arrangements under review.

She joins Leeds Met from the University of East London where she was acting vice chancellor.