Professor Caroline McMillen took over the top job at the university this week after coming from the University of South Australia, where she headed research.

She told the Newcastle Herald that her plan for the university included leading the institution through its strategic plan to 2015.

The plan includes boosting its research rankings, having enrolments top 40,000, an increase of international and disadvantaged students and expansion of the city campus.

‘‘In the next months I will be meeting with people discussing with them what that plan means for them,’’ Professor McMillen said.

She said coming to Newcastle was like coming home.

The mother of three children, now grown, was born in the port city of Belfast.

Her family moved to England when she was 14 to escape the troubles in Northern Ireland and at the urging of teachers in the steel city of Scunthorpe, went to Oxford and later Cambridge universities.

A former Australian supervisor encouraged her to move here almost 30years ago. She worked at Monash then Adelaide universities.

The biomedical researcher studied the link between nutrition during pregnancy and heart problems and obesity later in life.

After a busy first week, Professor McMillen said the city was welcoming, relaxed and smart.

‘‘Being part of a world-class institution is without a doubt exciting and being part of a regional institution can be an extraordinary experience connected to the community,’’ she said.

‘‘The defining feature of this university is that it brings those two together.’’

She wanted the university to use best practice to both train the region’s future professionals and conduct world-class research that was done in, and helped, its community.

Professor McMillen started amid controversies but said she was open to frank discussions.

‘‘Talented, bright, thoughtful people want to have a debate, that debate invariably enriches the discussion and that’s how a university should be,’’ she said.