Long-serving Deakin University boss Jane Den Hollander is coming out of retirement for a second time to serve as fill-in leader at Perth¡¯s Murdoch University.

Professor Den Hollander will start work as Murdoch¡¯s interim vice-chancellor in November following the departure of current stand-in Romy Lawson.

Professor Lawson, the institution¡¯s provost, stepped into the leadership role after Eeva Leinonen left several months ago for the Republic of Ireland to run Maynooth University.

But Professor Lawson has since accepted a deputy vice-chancellor role at Flinders University in Adelaide, and leaves Murdoch at the end of October.

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Murdoch chancellor Gary Smith told staff that Professor Den Hollander would be ¡°bringing her extensive leadership to guide the university while we transition to a new vice-chancellor¡±.

Her institutional leadership experience stems not just from her time at Deakin, which she headed from 2010 to 2019, but also from a stand-in role at the University of Western Australia (UWA) between February and July last year.

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She served as interim head of Perth¡¯s oldest university between the departure of Dawn Freshwater, who left to lead the University of Auckland, and new chief Amit Chakma¡¯s arrival from running Western University in Ontario.

After she finished up at UWA, Professor Hollander initiated a series of occasional seminars ¨C called ¡°Retiring, but not shy¡± ¨C at the University of Melbourne¡¯s Centre for the Study of Higher Education. In?material promoting the presentations, she said the notion of retirement had changed.

¡°When my granddad retired, it was a full stop on work. Retirement in the modern era is another thing altogether. Our generation is fitter, better educated and mostly longer lived, so it¡¯s a whole new chapter. I?look forward to the conversation on our sector and how to face life after work.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com