Dear Candidate
Thank you for your interest in the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham.
This is an important moment in the life of the University. Following the celebration of our 175th anniversary in 2025, and as we continue to take forward our Vision 2030, St Mary’s is looking to the future with confidence, ambition and a clear sense of purpose. Ours is a University with a long and distinguished history, but also one that is attentive to the needs of the present age and to the opportunities that lie ahead.
Founded in 1850, St Mary’s remains committed to the mission of the Catholic Church in higher education. That mission is expressed not in narrowness, but in a generous and outward-looking understanding of education: one that seeks the formation of the whole person, values the relationship between faith and reason, and prepares students to serve society with wisdom, compassion and integrity. Our life as a university is shaped by the values of inclusiveness, respect, generosity of spirit and excellence, and by a deep desire to be a community in which each person is supported and encouraged to flourish.
St Mary’s is also a University of growing strength and momentum. In recent years, it has continued to build its reputation for teaching quality, student support and student experience. The University holds a Gold rating for student experience in the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework and is placed 2nd in London for academic support in the 2025 National Student Survey. It has also continued its progress in the Complete University Guide, rising into the top 70 nationally. These measures matter not for their own sake, but because they reflect the dedication of staff and the seriousness with which St Mary’s approaches its service to students.
St Mary’s is also entering a period of strategic development. We have introduced a new range of online programmes, expanding our educational reach and accessibility. In September 2026, we will welcome the first students to our new School of Medicine, a significant milestone in our growth. Additionally, the launch of our international campus in Dubai will allow us to foster a global student community and extend our mission and values to new regions.
The Board is seeking a Vice-Chancellor who can lead St Mary’s with wisdom, courage and sound judgement through a period of opportunity and challenge for higher education. The person appointed will need to provide clear strategic leadership, sustain academic excellence, strengthen financial resilience, and represent the University with credibility and distinction across the sector, the Church and public life. Above all, the next Vice-Chancellor will be called to lead a community whose identity and mission matter deeply, and to do so in a way that is both faithful and forward-looking.
As a Catholic university, St Mary’s is seeking a Vice-Chancellor who is a practising Catholic, involved in the life of the Church, and who embraces and lives in conformity with the teachings of the Catholic Church. This is an essential part of the role. At the same time, St Mary’s is and must remain an open and welcoming university community, one in which people of all backgrounds are treated with dignity, where dialogue is valued, and where our Catholic identity is lived with confidence, generosity and care.
We are therefore looking for an exceptional leader: someone who will inspire trust across the community, and help shape the next chapter of St Mary’s with imagination, steadiness and a strong sense of service. This is a rare opportunity to lead a distinctive university whose mission remains deeply relevant, and whose future holds considerable promise.
I hope that, having read more about the role and the University, you will feel encouraged to consider making an application.
With best wishes,
Established in 1850 and with a deep heritage in education, St Mary’s University, Twickenham has a strong reputation for teaching excellence and a student-centred approach. Our aim is to prepare students for flourishing lives, successful careers and social commitment through excellent, research-enriched teaching in a community of mutual respect based on our Catholic ethos and values.
Developing and enhancing partnerships is important and we work with other universities at home and abroad, dioceses and institutions, local FE colleges and many schools across the UK. With nearly 6,000 students, 700 staff, and a turnover of £59 million, the University makes significant contributions to our local community and wider society, empowering our community to have a positive impact on the world.
You can read our most recent Annual Report and Financial Statements here.
Key achievements and highlights
Mission
We are an inclusive Catholic university seeking to develop the whole person and empower our community to have a positive impact on the world.
Vision
Our students and staff are at the heart of everything we do. We are an inclusive university, open to those of all faiths and none, and a local institution in a global city, serving a growing and richly diverse student community in locations both real and virtual.
Values
Rooted in our Catholic Foundation, with the value of the human person at its heart, our values set us apart, shape our behaviour and inform all our decisions in a university that responds to the demands of today.
Vision 2030: The Future of St Mary’s
St Mary’s is committed to providing our students with a transformational experience. Offering strong support and challenging goals whilst they study with us and opportunities to be part of the wider St Mary’s community beyond their time here, we want our students to be highly skilled, informed and civically engaged. Vision 2030 sets out how we will do this, building on the successes of the past and setting our direction for the coming years.
To achieve our Vision, we have identified five Pillars that will support our strategy.
You can read more about our Vision 2030 here.
Saint John Henry Newman, the architect of the modern understanding of a Catholic university, argued that the soul of a University can be seen in the mark it leaves on its students. A Catholic university is a learning community which endeavours to develop the whole person in accordance with God’s will. A Catholic university should help in the building of character and its students should go on to serve society whilst practising the virtues in whatever they do in later life.
Established in 1850 and with a distinctive Catholic identity, St Mary’s is a Catholic University seeking to develop the whole person and empower our community to have a positive impact on the world. St Mary’s has a deep heritage in education being founded by the Catholic Poor Schools Committee to meet the need for teachers to provide an education for the growing number of poor Catholic children. Our style of teaching and our approach to learning which emphasises student engagement and participation reflects Newman’s idea of inter-disciplinary education, virtues and values, and the formation of each individual enriched by insights from the Catholic intellectual tradition. The powerful sense of community that characterises St Mary’s is a product of our ethos and the core values that underpin it. St Mary’s is committed to the mission of the Catholic Church in higher education. We have established excellence in provision across a wide range of academic areas, highly-respected research centres and courses, pastoral care provision, partnerships and public engagement.
Our academic structure comprises two Faculties as well as the new School of Medicine, which will welcome our first medical students in September 2026. Complementing this are two academic Directorates (Research and Knowledge Exchange, and Educational Excellence and Student Outcomes) that foster excellence and collaboration in teaching and research, across Schools and subject area.
St Mary’s is also home to Mater Ecclesiae College.
Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences
The Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences is comprised of two schools offering a range of research informed undergraduate, postgraduate and foundation programmes. Research activity within the Faculty is expanding and our research been classified internationally excellent and world leading.
Faculty of Arts, Business, Law, Education and Theology
The Faculty of Arts, Business, Law, Education and Theology comprises three schools, each offering outstanding opportunities for learning, research, and professional growth.
School of Medicine
The St Mary’s School of Medicine is a medical school rooted in digital transformation, scientific excellence, core human values, and social purpose. Our goal is to train human-centred, clinically advanced, and digitally innovative doctors who are committed to making a sustainable difference to our world.
Students will study at in a purpose-built medical school where digital health and cutting-edge technology are an integral part of the student experience. The School includes a state-of-the-art Integrated Skills and Simulation Centre and our students will experience clinical placements in the UK NHS and community settings from year one.
Mater Ecclesiae College
Mater Ecclesiae is an ecclesiastical college which can trace its history back to 1614. In 2019, it entered into a collaborative relationship with St Mary’s University. It existed first of all to facilitate the education of seminarians to the priesthood, being founded when the Society of Jesus established a house of studies in Louvain for English Jesuits studying for degrees in theology and philosophy. Mater Ecclesiae College is proud to continue this tradition and to be able to confer some of the oldest academic degrees in the country. By doing so it is supporting an important aspect of the Catholic Church’s mission.
Impactful Research
St Mary’s has an established culture of research and scholarship, concentrated in hubs of excellence within research centres and at discipline level in Faculties and specialist Institutes. Research at St Mary’s is valued, encouraged and supported; undertaking research and scholarship is an integral part of academic life here.
Majority of research from St Mary’s rated World Leading or Internationally Excellent
The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) show that the majority of research submitted by St Mary’s University, Twickenham is 4* World Leading or 3* Internationally Excellent in its originality, significance, and rigour.
St Mary’s has more than doubled its research rated by the REF in the top two three- and four-star classifications as compared to the previous research exercise in 2014. St Mary’s also increased the number of eligible staff who submitted research in the REF by almost 30%. In most submitted units, St Mary’s research environment shifted from having International Recognition in 2014 to being considered as Internationally Excellent, with some areas also recognised as World-Leading.
The 2021 REF evaluated St Mary’s research across four academic groupings:
87% of Research in Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure, and Tourism at St Mary’s was rated as World Leading or Internationally Excellent, with 100% of impact case studies rated in the top two categories. The assessment of the research environment in this unit was found to be 75% in the Internationally Excellent rating.
World Leading outputs in Theology and Religious Studies were found to have more than trebled from 2014, with 28.6% rated at this level in 2021. The impact of 75% of research in this area was also rated in the top two categories. The English Language and Literature research unit, which also included submissions from History and Communications, saw a 50% increase on its ratings from 2014, with all outputs Internationally Recognised and 71% of research rated World Leading or Internationally Excellent.
In the new Social Work and Social Policy category, St Mary’s made an interdisciplinary submission with research from academics in Law, Criminology, Education, Psychology and Business. 100% of research in this category achieved International Recognition for its impact and 50% of outputs being rated as World Leading or Internationally Excellent.
Our research strategy is broken up into five interdisciplinary Research Excellence Pillars (REPs).
We have identified four key strategic objectives for research at St Mary’s:
The structural core of St Mary’s new Research Strategy that will enable us to achieve our key strategic objectives will be provided by our concentration upon research activity in five Research Excellence Pillars (REPs).
These Research Excellence Pillars are interdisciplinary fields of research that encompass our existing research strengths while including other, currently under-developed, research areas that we wish to nurture because they address important social challenges that align with St Mary’s vision, ethos, and values.
Most of the university’s research on specific topics is organised into Research Clusters and Research Centres.
These Clusters and Centres cover a broad range of research topics within the university’s main research areas.
The Learning and Teaching Strategy sets out the path St Mary’s University as a community of students, academic and professional services staff will take to ensure we are collectively able to provide a truly distinctive student experience which draws on our traditional strengths whilst taking advantage of the opportunities that new educational approaches and new technologies provide to teach and support student learning in new ways.
The main objectives of the Learning and Teaching Strategy include:
The Learning and Teaching Strategy defines the distinctive values and pedagogical approaches that will underpin our teaching and how students learn. It sets out, also, how we will build and maintain an inclusive environment that enables all our students to achieve their potential and progress into further study or exciting graduate careers.
The strategy focuses on the four distinctive themes to include our Digital Transformation, Teaching Practices, Learning Environment and Programme Design. Each theme contains specific strands and plays a critical role in shaping the future education for our community of students.
St Mary’s University is fully committed to creating an inclusive culture by promoting equality of opportunity and respecting differences amongst its students, staff, and other stakeholders.
The University has a long tradition of widening access to education for all while fostering a respectful and tolerant environment where all backgrounds are celebrated. Our equality, diversity and inclusion ambitions align with our Vision 2030, where each human being is unique and valued.
We are proud that our University is a richly diverse community, where we draw on the talents of all our students and staff to create a culture of mutual respect and recognition, where we embrace and share new perspectives. At St Mary’s we understand that our continued success is dependent on the contributions of every member of our community, and it is this collective spirit that makes us unique.
Our Access and Participation Plan, which is approved and monitored by our regulator, the Office for Students, sets out our targets and commitments for reducing and eliminating any existing inequalities for students at St Mary’s and addressing any barriers that might prevent anyone who chooses to study here from achieving their potential.
We aspire to go beyond our legal obligations and cultivate a community for our staff and students that truly embodies our core values of inclusion and respect. Many of these aspirations are outlined here.
We achieved Athena Swan Bronze in 2023 and Bronze in the Race Equality Charter in 2024. We recognise that EDI is an ongoing and constant commitment and will look forward to updating our progress in the next Staff Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report and Action Plan.
St Mary’s University is located in Twickenham, which is just half an hour by train from the heart of London. This gives both staff and students access to the best of both worlds: a dynamic, bustling city and a tranquil, riverside suburb, with excellent schools and facilities. Many staff and students choose to work and study at St Mary’s because of its prime location.
A snapshot of the local area
A leafy, suburban neighbourhood, Twickenham is a mixture of period houses, formal gardens and parks surrounding King Street, the town’s centre. Twickenham offers many traditional pubs and restaurants, with many diverse cuisines. Church Street runs adjacent to the river and comprises cafés, boutiques, small bookshops, and a church.
The lively riverside towns of Kingston and Richmond are a short bus ride away from the University. Throughout the day, the towns attract visitors who come to enjoy the shopping centres, cinemas, restaurants, live music venues, bars, and theatres. Teddington, just along the road from the University, was recently named “the best place to live in London” by the Sunday Times.
Outdoor spaces
Marble Hill Park in East Twickenham is a charming local park and the setting of Marble Hill House, a Venetian villa built for a mistress of George II and now a local landmark. Just a short stroll along a peaceful riverside road into secluded woodland gardens is Orleans House Gallery, a stunning 18th century house and gardens which now serves as an art gallery, hosting regular exhibitions and workshops.
St Mary’s is close to two of London’s eight royal parks. Both Richmond Park and Bushy Park, where Parkrun started, offer staff and students hundreds of acres of beautiful, secluded woodland for get-away-from-it-all walks, as well as space for cycling and running.
Twickenham and the adjacent River Thames also provide lots of opportunities for outdoor activities.
Culture, history and heritage
Flood Lane and Church Lane lead down to the river where you can enjoy a drink in one of the riverside pubs or cross the bridge on to Eel Pie Island. Many musicians began their careers or played sets at the Eel Pie Island Hotel and recorded material at Eel Pie Studios.
In 2017, St Mary’s became the proud operator of The Exchange in Twickenham – a newly built community venue that boasts a 300-seat theatre, six studio rooms, a café and a bar. St Mary’s students benefit from teaching and training at the site, with drama students staging performances in the theatre.
The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace, museums, galleries and other historic houses open to the public are also among unique features of the local area. On St Mary’s campus itself is Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole’s Gothic Revival villa.
Sport
The rugby capital of the world, Twickenham Stadium is the home of the Rugby Football Union. Seating 82,000, it is the 5th largest stadium in Europe and hosts the Six Nations matches and the Rugby World Cup, as well as the annual varsity match between rival universities Oxford and Cambridge. The prestigious matches attract fans from around the globe who celebrate in Twickenham’s pubs and bars, creating an unrivalled atmosphere. The area is also home to Harlequins and London Irish rugby clubs.
The stadium has a state-of-the-art fitness centre attached, as well as a world-renowned rugby museum. The stadium is also regularly used as a venue for concerts.
Find out more at www.stmarys.ac.uk/location
Vice-Chancellor Job Description
The Role
The Vice-Chancellor is the academic and administrative head of the University responsible for strategic leadership, governance, academic excellence and financial sustainability, whilst maintaining and promoting the University’s distinct mission and core values of inclusiveness, respect, generosity of spirit and excellence. He/she is the principal ambassador for the University, promoting its work regionally, nationally and internationally.
Key Accountabilities
The Person
The successful applicant for the position of Vice-Chancellor will be a visionary leader and will have qualifications, experience and personal qualities illustrating outstanding accomplishment. In reaching its decision, the selection process will seek to satisfy the following criteria:
St Mary’s University reserves the right to change and amend this job description/person specification in accordance with the changing requirements of the organisation.
The post holder will be expected to devote their time wholly and exclusively to the University, and any interests which may impact on the role must be declared at interview and agreed with the Chair of Governors.
The salary is dependent on experience and will be negotiated with the preferred candidate.
Holiday entitlement is 35 days annual leave, plus public holidays and University closure days between Christmas and New Year.
The successful candidate will be eligible to join the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
Assistance with relocation may be available.
St Mary’s offer a range of additional benefits including the Cycle2Work scheme, season ticket loan and on-site gym and sports facilities at a discounted rate.
More information on employee benefits can be found at: http://www.stmarys.ac.uk/jobs/benefits.htm.
Anderson Quigley is acting as an advisor to the University, an executive search process is being carried out by Anderson Quigley in addition to the public advertisement.
The closing date for applications is noon on Friday 8th May, 2026.
It is an occupational requirement as defined in the Equality Act 2010 that the Vice-Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham is practicing Catholic, involved in the life of the church, who embraces and lives in conformity with the teachings of the Catholic Church. You should only apply if you meet this requirement.
Applications should consist of:
To discuss the role in strict confidence, please contact:
Elliott Rae at elliott.rae@andersonquigley.com, +44 (0)7584 078 534 or Aino Betts at aino.betts@andersonquigley.com, +44 (0)7743 934 723.
www.stmarys.ac.uk/home.aspx 