The Vice-Chancellor leads the University and determines its overall direction, in close consultation with the Chancellor and other Fellows of Senate, senior leaders and the Academic Board.
Professor Mark Scott AO is the University of Sydney's 27th Vice-Chancellor.
Under his leadership, the University has embarked an ambitious 10-year strategy, with immediate commitments to more than double scholarship support for under-represented domestic students and invest nearly half a billion dollars in a world-leading biomedical precinct.
Professor Scott is a proud alumnus of the University and holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education, a Master of Arts (Political Science and Government), an Honorary Doctorate (Letters) and a Professor of Practice (Education and Media) from the University of Sydney, as well as a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of NSW and University of Technology Sydney.
He is a highly respected and successful senior leader of large and complex institutions, across public service, education, and the media. Under his leadership as Secretary of the NSW Department of Education (2016 to 2021) the Department secured a record 10-year funding agreement for public schools, created School Infrastructure NSW to deliver an additional 160,000 classroom places, and established the School Leadership Institute to train and develop aspiring school principals across the state.
His distinguished record of strategic leadership includes a decade as Managing Director of the ABC (2006 to 2016), where he led the organisation’s transformation to be a public broadcaster in the digital era. Over that time, the ABC created new services like iview, News 24, ABC3 and digital radio; and expanded online and mobile services, such as podcasting and ABC News online.
Professor Scott also held a number of senior editorial roles at Fairfax, including Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and Editor-in-Chief of metropolitan, regional and community newspapers. His contribution to education reaches back to the start of his career, as a teacher in Sydney. He built on his interest in education with senior policy and leadership positions with two NSW education ministers and in 2011 he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia.
In addition to his role as Vice-Chancellor, Professor Scott has previously served as Chair of the Group of Eight universities (2024 to 2025), Chair of the Conversation Media Group (2023 to 2026) and Chair of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Limited (ANZSOG) Academic Board (2021 to 2026). From 2022 to 2023, he chaired the Australian Government’s Teacher Education Expert Panel, which delivered its final report in July 2023.
From our own wellbeing to the preservation of the planet, The Solutionists with Mark Scott dives into the most pressing issues of our time and introduces you to the people unearthing the seeds of remarkable solutions.