Really interesting post about tweeting University VCs:
Scrolling through some of the 20,000 tweets made by Dominic Shellard (@DMUVC), vice-chancellor of De Montfort University, it quickly becomes clear that he is not a typical university head.
“New Jack Reacher book arrives Thursday. I absolutely cannot wait!”; “Just done a gym session…chilling now in the cafe”; and “Sounds ace!” are all messages that could easily have come from an excitable fresher newly arrived on campus.
But does this steady stream of football banter, jokes with students and staff, and off-the-wall observations on life – mixed with more official university announcements – offer some lessons for more traditional vice-chancellors?
According to Katrina Gulliver, a research fellow in history at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, who has studied Twitter use by academics, it does. Shellard’s communication with staff and students across the university is impressive, she thinks, and “he seems to make a good effort to reply to everyone who tries to engage him”
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