Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Partnerships and Enterprise): Professor Mark Durkin

About the role

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships and Enterprise leads Partnership and Enterprise activity within Theme 3 of the University’s strategy. In particular this new portfolio is focused on Theme 3 of the new strategy; reaching new communities through innovation and partnership and how such efforts can generate wider benefits into Themes 1 and 2. Reporting to the Vice-Chancellor, the role is responsible for driving new growth and extending the OU’s reach, impact and longer-term sustainability.

The role connects expertise across the OU’s Faculties, Nations, Business Development Unit and professional services. Facilitating improved internal partnering is core to the emphasis within P&E to help colleagues work together more effectively and efficiently on the development of new ideas and the ability to more easily identify and convert new opportunities into value for students, staff, stakeholders and society more widely.

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor leads the development of higher-value partnerships and new sources of diversified income both within the UK and internationally. This includes professional education, continuing professional development, work-based learning, consultancy, knowledge exchange, joint ventures and new partner-supported educational models. These activities are core in supporting the University’s academic vision and mission, widening access to education and creating improved social and economic impact as a result.

Mark's background

Prior to joining The Open University, Professor Durkin was Professor of Marketing and Executive Dean of the Ulster University Business School with a presence across Northern Ireland, London, Birmingham, Dalian (China) and Doha.

Prior to entering academia, he spent over a decade in various service, sales and strategic marketing roles within the Bank of Ireland Group. He completed his PhD in 2005 (Loughborough University, UK), which focused on enabling remote banking relationships and then studied as a post-doc in Melbourne Business School, Monash University and Otago University. He was awarded the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing's 'Marketing Person of the Year' in 2006 in recognition of his contribution to marketing education. Mark completed all his higher education on a part-time basis, a process that took eighteen years.

Mark has held senior positions at Ulster in both academic leadership and professional services leadership contexts. He is committed to embedding entrepreneurial leadership principles within the business curriculum and is especially interested in tapping into the potential of people, places, methods and ideas to create new value through those people who may not feel a University education is 'for them'.

Mark is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the Institute of Banking, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Directors and is a Senior Fellow of the UK's Higher Education Academy. In 2020, he was elected by members to the International Board of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and in 2022 was elected international Vice-Chair. He continues to support the CIM Board as a member of their Compliance and Risk Committee and also acts in a voluntary capacity as a Director on the board of Friends of the Cancer Centre. He is also a Governor of Aquinas Grammar School in Belfast.

He has published over 50 peer-reviewed academic papers and is an invited scholar to Babson College in Boston, a visiting professor to Philadelphia University and an Honorary Professor at Hubei GEO University in China.