Pro Vice-Chancellor for Science and Environment

Northumbria is a research-intensive university that unlocks potential for all, changing lives regionally, nationally, and internationally. Our vision is that through our world-leading research and transformative education, we enable people from all backgrounds to succeed and support businesses and communities in the North-East, London and beyond to thrive.

Tracing its origins back to Rutherford College in late 19^th Century Newcastle, now, more than 140 years on, Northumbria is one of the largest universities in the UK, with over 35,000 students from more than 140 countries and over 3,500 staff. Based in two of the best student cities, Newcastle and London, Northumbria has a international presence, with 17 global academic partners in 10 countries including Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Caribbean and regional offices in Nigeria, China, Malaysia, Thailand and India.

Northumbria University has had an impressive and sustained run of national recognition in recent years. In 2022, Northumbria was crowned Times Higher Education's University of the Year in recognition of its transformation over more than a decade into a research-intensive university with a clear social mobility mission to unlock potential and change lives. In 2023 the Daily Mail awarded Northumbria the titles of both Research University of the Year and Modern University of the Year and this year The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025 awarded Northumbria the title of Modern University of the Year. Central to this sector recognition has been the REF 2021 results, in which Northumbria recorded the biggest rise in research power of any UK university for the second time, moving up 27 places to 23rd in the UK

To ensure we are optimally positioned to deliver our bold and ambitious Strategy 2030, under the leadership of Professor Andy Long, from September 2025, the University will move to a new structure with three new Faculties.

Our new Faculties are:

• Society and Culture
• Science and Environment
• Health and Wellbeing

The new Faculties will help us to promote and enable more interdisciplinarity in our research, will support our ambitions around widening participation and creating opportunities for individuals with the ability to succeed, and will enable us to expand our offering of experiential learning opportunities.

We are now seeking three exceptional Pro Vice-Chancellors to lead our new Faculties and to deliver on our significant ambitions over the coming years. Members of the University Executive, the PVCs will encourage creativity and innovation in research and teaching, promote outstanding student experience and outcomes across the Faculties and play an important role in the leadership of the University.

The Pro-Vice-Chancellors will be inspiring and inclusive leaders with sustained academic leadership experience gained at a strategic level who can engage and inspire staff. They will be a leading academic in their discipline, committed to the transformational power of higher education and passionate about delivering high-impact research and an exceptional student experience. They will also have a genuine commitment to the mission and values of the University.

This is an exciting time to join Northumbria University as we build on our outstanding achievements over recent years and continue to innovate and deliver our exciting new strategy.

Please note the candidate brief is to follow.

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