Professor Shân Wareing is the University's Vice-Chancellor. Prior to this role she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Northampton, and other executive roles she has held include Chief Operating Officer at London South Bank University and Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching at Buckinghamshire New University.
Shân’s first job was as a Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Roehampton, before she moved into the field of Education Development, during which period she was Co-Chair of the Staff and Educational Development Association. She has a track record of leading institutional transformation programmes including assessment at University of the Arts London, leading to a 12% uplift in the assessment and feedback questions in the National Student Survey sustained over ten years, digital transformation of the student journey at London South Bank University, which won a PwC award, and recruitment improvements at the University of Northampton, leading to an uplift in recruitment of 18-year-old students, ahead of comparable Higher Education Institutions.
She is Chair of the charity Unite Foundation, Chair of AdvanceHE’s Leadership and Management Strategic Advisory Group, and has published in the fields of linguistics, equality, diversity and inclusion, leadership and team development, and learning and teaching in higher education. Her current scholarly interests are leadership and governance from the perspective of diversity and inclusion, and higher education policy.
Shân studied English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, and Sociolinguistics at the University of Strathclyde. She was a competitive rower for many years and has a rowing half-blue from Oxford. Shân holds a postgraduate diploma in Higher Education studies from the Institute of Education, University College London, she is a Professor of Teaching in Higher Education, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a National Teaching Fellow.
In her role as the Vice-Chancellor, Shân leads the University's diverse and innovative community, including staff, students and partners in an outstandingly collaborative and inclusive culture.
As the Accountable Officer to the Office for Students, Shân has responsibility for:
Shân is the University's principal representative in articulating the University’s interests and needs to the wider world. She also plays an important role in representing Middlesex University to government, businesses, funders and to national, global and local stakeholders.
An important part of Shân's role is to deliver our University Mission and Strategic Plan to be a global university, operating at new levels of accessibility, working in new forms of partnership and developing new understandings of the world through which our growing community can influence it for the good.
Shân shapes the strategic direction of the University in partnership with the Board of Governors and is accountable to the Chair of the Board of Governors. She is also a full member of the Board of Governors.
All members of the University Executive Team report to Shân as the Vice-Chancellor.
