Search the Internet          Tips

The professor's now recruiting

Ajit Jain
India Abroad Correspondent in Toronto

In his new position as vice-provost (faculty) at the University of Toronto, Dr Vivek Goel, 40, becomes head of reviewing new appointments and promotions and involves the whole gamut of administrative work that may take him away from research in public health.

Goel's high-profile appointment for a five-year term -- he will be amongst four vice-provosts in the university reporting directly to the provost, who is the head of academic affairs -- was announced by the university's governing council last month.

He's currently associate professor and chair of the department of administration at the university.

"As chair of the department I am answerable to the dean, but in my new position as vice-provost I will review new recruitments, promotions, etc," he said in an interview on Monday. This position is one notch above the dean, Goel said, happy to have got this kind of recognition at a young age.

The University of Toronto is the biggest in Canada with 55,000 students, half of them under-graduates, and over 4,000 faculty members.

With the projected retirement of half of the faculty members in the next decade and the student population increasing, the university, which is making two appointments a week, will soon be making one appointment a day, Goel said. That will be a new challenge for the professor.

Another policy review that will be handled by him will be how to handle university professors who also work in hospitals and are partly paid for by the hospitals or drug companies. "I will start a review of their role," Goel said, "They are still university professors, but they are paid by other sources."

He has done extensive research in public health. One of his findings is that cancer patients treated in teaching hospitals have a better chance of survival than if treated in a public/municipal hospital.

He attributed it to "better expertise and patient care in a teaching hospital."

Part of his research was how to import expertise from teaching hospitals to public hospitals.

Goel was only six when his family migrated to Canada. He received his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, before obtaining his master's degree in health administration from the University of Toronto in 1988. In 1990, he received his master's degree in biostatistics from Harvard University.

Goel also serves as an adjunct senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluation Sciences and as scientific programme leader of the Health Evidence Applications Linkages Network (HEALNet). He is also president of the Central East Health Information Partnership and a member of the advisory board of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Institute for Health Services and Policy Research, and chairs the peer review panel on health information and promotion.

"Prof Goel has a range of experience and skills that will be valuable assets in his new position," said University Provost Adel Sedra.

"His experience as chair of a large department in the Faculty of Medicine and his involvement in university governance, most recently as vice-chair of the Academic Board, will provide a strong foundation for him in his new role. He is also an accomplished researcher who understands the values and challenges of the academic life. I look forward to having him on our team," Sedra said in a statement.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report