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(Academic) Leadership ... in "13 Days"

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Reflections on academic leadership ... In Dec 2017, I had just been appointed Head of the School and asked a wise colleague for guidance on meeting the challenges of the role. Knowing that I am a film buff, she gave me a copy of a movie called "Thirteen Days" (2001) together with a brief note highlighting some key leadership behaviours that she felt were important to learn. At the time, I noted the key points she had written but never actually got around to watching the movie - mainly because it was on a DVD and we no longer had a player in the house!  I completed my tenure in the role, with some successes but also faced several challenging situations.  My colleague's advice was useful when faced with particular challenges, but I also found a need to adapt some aspects of the guidance to fit my personality and style. Six years later, as we approach the end of 2023, I noticed that "Thirteen Days" was available on one of the streaming services we subscribe to and ...
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Love work, even if it doesn't love me back ...

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"Work won't love you back" As the end of 2024 loomed, inspiration for my last blog post of the year (now first blog post of the new year!) was hard to come by, and I asked some colleagues for ideas. One suggestion was:  "Looking back 10 years, how does your current career align with your past vision and goals—have they changed? " As I reflected on this, I recollected one key goal from much earlier in my career - based on the much quoted aphorism that "If you do what you love, you won't work a day in your life" . This is seen as an achievable goal in academia, where we have a lot of flexibility and agency to pursue our research interests and teach subjects related to these interests. However, over the years I have seen (and personally experienced) how this can be a double-edged sword - used wisely a useful tool to motivate us to overcome challenges, but if used unskilfully can be harmful to oneself and others. This latter aspect is the focus of one ...
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Cyber security by the rest of us ...

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Breakdown of cyber crime types reported by learners in Week 1 As part of the Introduction to Cyber Security MOOC , we asked learners to review their computer security practices at the start of their learning by completing a simple online survey / self-audit.  Over 9100 learners completed the survey in Week 1 of the course, highlighting some interesting findings. For example, although 84% of respondents had configured their computers to require a password on startup, 30% did not 'lock' their computer so that it required the password to be re-entered if they left it unattended. With regard to password management, 55% of respondents depended on their memory for storing passwords, whereas 26% used software (password manager / web browser) to manage their passwords.  It is noteworthy that 18% reported that they write their passwords down and 59% reuse the same username / password across multiple websites. It was reassuring to note that 90% of learners who completed the...
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