Academic leader remembered as respectful, thoughtful and energetic
By Ian Marshman
CARL BORIS SCHEDVIN May 23, 1936-July 15, 2024
“Education has to be the future of Australia. It is our opportunity to deliver people with ability to effect on a global stage.”
These words of Boris Schedvin guided a life devoted to excellence in teaching, research and university leadership.
Born in 1938, the only child of parents of Swedish ancestry, Boris Schedvin grew up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. His first lessons in economic management was at the age of 14, following his father’s death, Boris became responsible for managing the family delicatessen’s accounts.
With the help of scholarships, Boris attended Cranbrook School from 1943 to 1954. He excelled scholastically and in sport and became head prefect and captained the school’s football team.
In 1955, Boris spent a formative gap year jackerooing in the Cobar, NSW, region as his family thought Boris needed “toughening up”. By all accounts, Boris never became a competent horseman.
Subsequent studies at the University of Sydney eventually led to a PhD. It was also when he met his wife-to-be Bernie, commencing a special relationship that lasted until Bernie’s death in 2023.
Boris was an outstanding scholar in the discipline of economic history. His research specialty related to the economic impact of the Great Depression of the 20th century. His book Australia and the Great Depression, published in 1970, became a standard reference. Boris also wrote commissioned histories of CSIRO in the 1987 and the Reserve Bank of Australia in 1992. His research achievements were recognised through election as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences in 1987.
Academic leader Boris Schedvin.
After several academic appointments in the UK and Australia, Boris Schedvin was appointed to the chair of economic history at the University of Melbourne in 1979. As head of the Department of Economic History, Boris established a centre for business research and a program in corporate history. He also helped nurture several aspiring economists who have had great success in business and the academy.
In 1989, Boris’ wider organisational potential led to his election as deputy vice-president of the academic board. In 1991, vice-chancellor David Penington appointed Boris to be deputy vice-chancellor (academic) and effectively his “right-hand man” in managing the university’s academic programs. Boris served as DVC (academic) until his retirement in 2000.
The early 1990s was a period of major reform across Australian higher education and especially within the University of Melbourne. Both internally and externally the university was being asked to be more accountable for the quality of its academic programs. He played the pivotal role in responding to several national policy interventions and in implementing internal reforms.
Boris oversaw the merger of the Melbourne College of Advanced Education, the Hawthorn Institute of Education and the Institute of Early Childhood Development with the University to form a new Institute of Education. He was active in planning how the Victorian College of Agriculture and Horticulture, with its diverse range of colleges spread across Victoria, might be combined with the university’s faculty of agriculture.
Boris led major restructuring and made key appointments to strengthen the performance of academic disciplines, including law, engineering and accounting. This work has left a lasting legacy as the standing of these academic disciplines now attests.
Subsequently, Boris led the initial expansion of Melbourne’s international student and international engagement programs. He was prominent in development of Asialink and the then Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies. At the same time, Boris led the early development of the university’s Bio21 Institute.
His scholarly and academic leadership was recognised by the university through the award of a doctor of commerce (honoris causa) in 2001.
Throughout his term as DVC (academic), Boris set the standard for collegial engagement and personal commitment. Former colleagues relate how their interactions with him were always cordial, respectful and constructive.
Unswervingly, Boris focused on the issue at hand and sought to achieve an outcome that was in the best interests of the organisation and those involved. For a university leader who in many ways operated as the vice-chancellor’s “academic bulldozer”, maintaining this focus was no mean feat.
In the 1990s, deputy vice-chancellors, if they were lucky, had two staff, one a personal assistant and the other a research officer. This meant almost everything produced from a DVC portfolio genuinely had to be generated by the DVC.
Boris was a remarkable deliverer, regardless of subject. A major review of agriculture education was written almost solely by Boris. Early papers on the Bio21 Institute were authored by Boris. When the Australian Government first introduced a national Quality in Higher Education Review, bonus funding and reputational standing were on offer.
Under Penington’s leadership only one outcome was acceptable. Boris was assigned accountability. Over little more than a weekend, Boris personally drafted an extensive University of Melbourne portfolio submission. When other executives were asked to comment, only a modest number of inconsequential edits resulted.
Needless to say, Boris delivered, and Melbourne achieved top rating.
In later years, Boris bought and developed land at Main Ridge on the Mornington Peninsula. He and Bernie retired there in later years. He was proud of his farming prowess and his annual draft of Angus calves.
Boris remained actively interested in the wider world, willing to share and compare investment advice, chew the fat about the old days at university, discuss weed control measures, advise on preferred peninsula wines and, of course, reflect on the performance of Australia’s cricketers.
At Main Ridge, Boris and Bernie continued to contribute to their community. As ever, they did that in a modest, unassuming and highly proficient manner. It is fitting that the soon-to-be-opened Green’s Bush to Arthurs Seat biolink is to be named “Bernie’s Biolink”.
Boris is an academic leader whose achievements remain largely unsung. He was one of Melbourne University’s pioneers who in no small way helped Melbourne on its way to achieving its current success and standing.
His contemporaries remember a respectful, thoughtful and energetic colleague endowed with a sharp, engaging and constructive mind – and a great turn of phrase to go with it.
Boris Schedvin is survived by his son Sven and daughter Natasha.
Ian Marshman AM is a former senior vice-principal at the University of Melbourne and family friend.