Appointment of President and Vice-Chancellor

We are pleased to announce that Professor Shearer West has been appointed as next President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.

Professor West will take up office in October 2017 following the retirement of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Greenaway.

She will be the seventh Vice-Chancellor in the University’s history and the first woman in the role.

Professor West is Professor of Art History and currently Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield.

She has held a number of significant leadership roles in higher education. Prior to her post at Sheffield, she was Head of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. She has also worked as Director of Research at the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), as Head of the School of Historical Studies at the University of Birmingham and undertook a number of leadership roles at Leicester University.

While at the AHRC, she was appointed the first ever non-scientist chair of the Research Group of RCUK — which comprised science and research directors of all seven constituent research councils.

She has authored and edited nine books and many articles and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Historical Society. She has held two visiting Fellowships at Yale University.

She also has a number of international roles of responsibility, most recently acting as main panel chair for the national research assessment exercise for Humanities in Norway and serving on the steering group to introduce impact into the Excellence in Research (ERA) exercise in Australia. She also represented the UK on the Science Europe Humanities Scientific Committee, and has been a jurist for the Spinoza Prize in the Netherlands and the Odysseus and Solvay prizes in Belgium, as well as an Advisory Board member for the Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Vienna.

In her role Professor West will work closely with the University of Nottingham’s leadership teams in the UK as well as at its overseas campuses in China and Malaysia.

President of Council John Mills said: “Professor West becomes our Vice-Chancellor at the start of a period of investment in both our research and academic community to build on the strong foundations in our campus infrastructure and international development which sets us apart from other UK Universities.

“Nottingham has the ability to transform lives through its world-class teaching and research and with increasing collaboration with other leading institutions. David has been a remarkable Vice-Chancellor and Shearer’s energy, drive and commitment to a collaborative spirit reflects the culture of our University and will build on his legacy.”

Professor West added: “I am honoured to be appointed to the role of Vice-Chancellor at The University of Nottingham and looking forward to leading this great University. I am a sincere admirer of the wonderful work which Nottingham has undertaken across its faculties in the UK and overseas. It will be a privilege to work with a highly-regarded international community of scholars and students, and I look forward to taking up this role at a time of both challenge and opportunity for universities.”