Grant Guilford

After a Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Bachelor of Philosophy[1] at Massey University, Guilford completed a PhD in nutrition from the University of California, Davis.[2] The title of his 1993 thesis was Experimental Studies of Gastrointestinal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury and Food Sensitivity in Dogs.[3]

Following the completion of his PhD, Guilford worked at the University of Missouri and the University of California, Davis, before returning to New Zealand and Massey University,[2] where he studied food allergies in domestic pets.[4]

Guilford was first author on the third edition of the veterinary textbook Strombeck's Small Animal Gastroenterology.[5]

Guilford rose to professor and served for 10 years as the Foundation Head of the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences at Massey University.[6] The institute became the first veterinary school in the southern hemisphere to be accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association.[7] Guilford faced opposition from animal rights activists, some of whom took direct action, with the Animal Liberation Front liberating dogs from a farm owned by the University.[4][8][9]

Guilford moved to the University of Auckland as Dean of Science in 2009[10][11] and Vice Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington in 2013.[12]

During his time as Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University of Wellington has grown and modernized its physical campus, with a new science building opened by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and creative studios in Miramar.[13]

There has been tension between Guilford's administration and staff represented by the Tertiary Education Union, where the University offered higher salaries to those who chose not to be union members.[14][15] This, and other contributing factors, led to industrial action undertaken by union members.[16]

Under Guilford, the Victoria University of Wellington's Karori campus was sold to private developers. This prompted some controversy, as the university had acquired the land for $10 from the Ministry of Education, and sold it for an undisclosed sum (the land was valued in excess of $20 million) to Ryman for the purposes of making a retirement village.[17][18] This led to tension between the Ministry of Education, the Wellington City Council, the Karori community, and Victoria University of Wellington as many considered that it was improper for the university to make such a profit off public land.[19][20] Guilford later said Victoria University spent around $21 million upgrading the campus, challenging the idea that the University had made a $20 million profit from the land.[21]

In May 2018, Guilford announced that Victoria University of Wellington was considering renaming the institution to "The University of Wellington" to provide clarity and avoid confusion with other similarly-named institutions.[22] Consultation on the proposal ended in early June 2018. [23] Opposition to the proposed name change led to thousands of written submissions and a petition against the change being received from students, staff, graduates and alumni of the University.[24] The Minister of Education declined the name change.[25] The University then changed its logos and branding, minimising references to Victoria in a move described as "a name change by stealth."[26]

Victoria University of Wellington divested itself from fossil fuels during Guilford's tenure as Vice-Chancellor.[27] Guilford has called for politicians to act on climate change, and made a brief submission to the Ministry for the Environment consultation phase on setting New Zealand's post-2020 climate change target.[28][29]

In 2020, Guilford was criticised following Victoria University of Wellington's decision to charge residents of the university's closed halls of residence a $150 per week fee once New Zealand moved to COVID-19 alert level three on 28 April 2020.[30] Guilford responded to criticism with claims that the university would have to cut staff if the fee could not be collected.[31] This resulted in a student-led rent strike involving at least 1000 people.[32]

In August of 2020, Guilford made another move unpopular with university staff when he unveiled plans to restructure the university, eliminating schools in order to focus administration on the faculty offices, which would result in significant job losses for administrative staff. Staff have described Guilford's plan as "cruel and insensitive", and accused Guilford of "pushing through too many projects focused on increasing revenue in order to break even by 2021, without addressing staff and student burnout".[33] The University's postgraduate students association have also spoken out against Guilford, noting that most student support comes from the school offices he plans to cut.[34] Furthermore, a survey of staff found that 88% of staff at the university did not trust the university's senior leadership, and over 50% were experiencing fatigue and anxiety.[35] Victoria University Professor Lydia Wevers characterised Guilford's leadership as "a general failure to communicate well with staff", and noted that Guilford had cancelled all meetings with the staff union for the remainder of the 2020.[35] In October of 2020, Salient heavily criticised Guilford's leadership in their review of the preceding academic year, noting his dishonesty regarding accommodation fees, the wasting of school funds on events that were unprofitable due to a lack of advertisement, the charging of international students four times more than domestic despite limited benefits under lockdown, and his refusal to upscale student grades due to the stresses incurred by the COVID-19 crisis (with VUW being the only university in New Zealand not to do so), as well as criticising his failure to communicate restructurings and job losses with staff and students.[36]

In January of 2021, in the midst of job cuts due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the university's finances (and shortly after Guilford personally appealed for staff to take voluntary redundancy,[37] which led to many staff saying that they felt "guilt tripped" by Guilford into leaving[38]), Guilford unveiled plans to spend $69,000 on a new illuminated sign for the university's Rutherford House building. Tertiary Education Union president Dougal McNeill called the move "bizarre", as the university was putting aesthetic changes above the wellbeing of its staff, and said “Staff cuts now would hurt students, the university, and the community, and wasteful decisions like this latest plan underline that there is no case for cuts". Wellington city councillor Nicola Young accused Guilford of being duplicitous and going against the education minister by wasting important educational funds on a "name change by stealth", which she claimed was an "obsession" of Guilford's.[39]

As of 2018, Guilford is on the board of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA).[40] He has previously held positions on the boards of several companies, including New Zealand Genomics Limited, centres of research excellence, including the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, and the Crown research institute Landcare Research Limited.[41]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grant Guilford.

• Profile on Victoria University site
• Grant Guilford on LinkedIn