University of Bradford
www.bradford.ac.uk/about
For people with purpose. It starts in Bradford. Thank you for your interest in joining the University of Bradford.
This is an exciting time for our University as we look to the future with renewed ambition and a clear commitment to delivering an outstanding experience for every student. Central to that ambition is ensuring that our students benefit from excellent teaching, a supportive and inclusive learning environment, and every opportunity to succeed, both during their studies and beyond.
We are seeking an inspiring and collaborative leader who shares our commitment to student success and has the experience, energy and determination to drive meaningful improvements in learning, teaching and the wider student experience. This is an important leadership role, with the opportunity to shape our approach, build on our strengths and make a real and lasting difference to the lives of our students.
You will bring a strong track record of leading change and improving outcomes, alongside the ability to engage, influence and work collaboratively with academic and professional services colleagues across the University. We recognise that delivering an excellent student experience is a collective responsibility, and we need someone who can bring people together, challenge constructively and translate ambition into action.
The University of Bradford is driven by purpose. We turn aspirations into opportunity, ambition into careers and ideas into impact. As our next Pro-Vice-Chancellor, you will help bring this purpose to life through excellent teaching, inclusive support and an educational experience that enables students from every background to thrive.
For the right person, this is a wonderful opportunity to help shape the next chapter of our University’s development and play a significant role in delivering the improvements and opportunities our students deserve.
I hope that, having reviewed the information, you will be inspired to consider joining us.
At the University of Bradford, we see the potential in everybody. We are committed to advancing equality, diversity and inclusion and creating an empowering environment in which students and staff can thrive, achieve their ambitions and make a difference. Our commitment to social mobility includes access to higher education, the support people receive and the opportunities their education creates.
We are determined to be an anti-racist institution that celebrates our rich diversity and heritage – this is about driving change and tackling disadvantage on a structural, cultural and individual level.
Our credentials in equality, diversity and inclusion are second to none. We have been ranked first on the Higher Education Policy Institute’s Social Mobility Index for five consecutive years. We were named Daily Mail University of the Year for Social Inclusion 2026.
As part of creating an inclusive environment for work and study, we are members of several equality charters and national schemes, including the Race Equality Charter, Disability Confident and Stonewall University Champions Programme. We have achieved an institutional bronze Athena SWAN award and are determined to continuously improve our standing in this area.
The University of Bradford is driven by purpose.
We turn aspirations into opportunity, ambition into careers and ideas into impact. From career-focused teaching to student-centred support and life-changing research, everything we do is designed to help people go further.
Careers start here, from day one.
Career development is integral to the Bradford experience. Working with industry, we embed professional relevance across teaching, assessment and placements, helping students develop the skills, experience and confidence to succeed. We are ranked 19th in England for graduates entering highly skilled employment.
Ideas that change lives and shape the world.
Our research focuses on the issues that matter most. Developed with people and industry, it addresses real challenges and creates benefits for communities locally and globally. 77% of our research impact is rated internationally excellent or world-leading.
Where talent thrives.
We see the potential in everybody. Through our courses, support and commitment to inclusion, we help students from a wide range of backgrounds achieve their ambitions. Our focus extends beyond access to higher education: it encompasses the progress students make, their experience while studying and the opportunities available to them afterwards. We are ranked 12th in the Guardian League Table 2027 for ‘value-added’.
These strengths are made possible by the purpose, innovation and ambition of our staff, students, alumni and partners.
For people with purpose. It starts in Bradford.
9,615 students in the 2025/26 academic year:
1487 staff in February 2026:
Faculty of Management, Science & Engineering, includes:
Faculty of Health and Social Care:
Institute of Health and Social Care:
Institute of Digital and Sustainable Futures:
The University recently approved a new 10-year strategy designed to amplify our strengths, accelerate innovation and deepen our social impact, locally, nationally and globally.
The four main priorities are: putting students first, widening access, growing our reputation for research and innovation and making the University work better, and be a better place to work and study.
Students first
We will embed a culture of innovation, responsiveness and student-centric design across faculties and professional services, ensuring that online learners receive a consistently high-quality experience that leads to strong employment and progression outcomes. This includes modernising institutional operations such as admissions, marketing, curriculum design and student support, all aligned with the principle of ‘meeting students where they are.’ We expect to see continuing progress in Teaching Excellence Framework outcomes and to align ever greater focus on employability with our strategy to widen access.
Widen access
We plan to expand our online provision with an aspiration for 10,000 new online lifelong learners over the next ten years. This is central to the University’s goal of growth through widening access and reflects a strategic response to rapid global changes in employer demand for skills over the course of a career. Delivering this ambition requires bold and strategic leadership and our Executive Team are pivotal in translating this vision into action – shaping the University’s online offer, embedding innovation across the institution, and ensuring alignment with our other three strategic pillars.
Grow our reputation for research and innovation
We will deliver the University’s research and knowledge mobilisation agenda to improve research impact through two research institutes that will broadly centre on Health and Social Care, and Digital Innovation, Engineering and Sustainability. Strengthening industry partnerships and embedding research-informed practice into online programme design will help position Bradford as a competitive and values-led provider of learning.
A university that works better
We will modernise and streamline institutional operations, ensuring financial sustainability and long-term resilience. This includes aligning services with student needs, enhancing accountability and simplifying systems and processes to support growth and profitability. A university that works better will provide a stronger and more sustainable platform for growth and innovation – always putting students first.
At the University of Bradford, we turn aspirations into opportunity, ambition into careers and ideas into impact. Our purpose is reflected in the opportunities we create, the research we deliver and the contribution we make to our communities. It starts in Bradford.
Where talent thrives
We see the potential in everybody. In 2024/25, our students received £2.8 million in bursaries and scholarships, making higher education more accessible, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We offer scholarships for a wide range of underrepresented groups, including care leavers, people seeking asylum, women in science and technology, and white working-class males.
More than half of our students come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our commitment goes beyond widening access: we help students develop their abilities, achieve their ambitions and access opportunities that can change their lives.
Ideas that change lives and shape the world
Our research focuses on the issues that matter most, bringing people and industry together to create practical solutions. We secured £8.2 million in research grants and knowledge exchange bids in 2025/26, supporting projects ranging from the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to speed up organ donor transplants, to working with over 200 schools through the Sport England-funded Creating Active Schools initiative to increase physical activity among young people.
We power the local economy
Our purpose extends into the city and region we serve. We have spent £10.6 million with over 100 local suppliers and work in partnership with key organisations in the city, including Bradford Culture Company (formerly Bradford 2025), Bradford City AFC, Bradford Literature Festival and the National Science and Media Museum.
Through the Bradford Digitisation Hub, we work with dozens of small and medium-sized businesses across West Yorkshire. We are the anchor institution for the £8.4 million Bradford Energy Network, and produce Bradford’s Top 100 Businesses annual guide with the Telegraph & Argus. Our Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem also supports over 30 business start-ups, helping turn ideas and ambition into opportunities for growth.
Careers start here, from day one
We connect learning with professional practice, helping students develop the skills and experience to succeed. 80% of our graduates are in work or further study 15 months after graduating, and 80% of our courses are accredited or industry recognised.
We are the first university to offer all our student nurses naloxone anti-overdose drug training and the only university to offer a paid sandwich year for paramedics. Our Distance Learning MBA is ranked first in the world for value for money by the Financial Times.
Enhancing student experience
Our commitment to innovation and inclusion also shapes how students learn and access support. We are one of the first British Universities of Sanctuary, one of the first Adobe Creative Campuses, the first to offer students a one-stop-shop Santander app and the first in the world to launch a programme module co-designed by people living with dementia.
We are working with Higher Ed Partners to recruit an additional 10,000 online learners by 2035, complementing our campus provision with more flexible ways to study, and we are using innovative technology, including RealWear headsets, to offer digital placements for our Pharmacy and Physician Associates students, enhancing their exposure of primary care environments.
We connect globally
Ideas developed in Bradford have an impact beyond our region. As founder of the World Technology University Network, we bring institutions together to share expertise and address common challenges.
We hosted the 2025 International AMRI Conference, showcasing research in biopharma, medical technology and sustainable polymer science, particularly through collaboration with universities in China. We also hosted the launch of the UN Human Development Report 2025, exploring responsible artificial intelligence, alongside a global conference on radiography.
The University of Bradford has secured Chinese government approval for two programmes, engineering management with China University of Petroleum-East China and business at the Sino-British College, starting September. Delivered collaboratively, they expand transnational education, strengthen partnerships, and extend access to Bradford teaching overseas, supporting long-term global growth and research collaboration.
Leading with purpose
Our achievements are made possible by the purpose, innovation and ambition of our staff, students, alumni and partners. Through Strategy 2035, we will build on these strengths by putting students first, widening access and enhancing our research and innovation.
For people with purpose. It starts in Bradford.
Bradford is surrounded by some of the most striking and storied landscapes in the UK – from the rugged beauty of Brontë Country and the rolling hills of the Yorkshire Dales to the industrial heritage of Saltaire and the creative energy of its varied towns and cities. The University of Bradford is proud to be part of a region known for its resilience, diversity and ambition. Our location offers not just a backdrop but a context for learning and living.
Bradford itself is experiencing a renaissance, thanks to a £50m revamp of its city centre, creating new pedestrianised areas, a new market, city centre parks and transport routes, a £50m renovation of the iconic Bradford Live venue (formerly the Odeon cinema), and Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, which has attracted over a million visitors to hundreds of events across the district and of which we are a key partner, charged with preserving its legacy.
Bradford has a youthful city: 28.2% of the district’s population is aged 17 or younger – the highest percentage in West Yorkshire and the sixth highest in England – and is the fifth largest local authority by population (after Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester) but is also the 13th most deprived in England. This is reflected in our student population, 65% of whom hail from the most socio-economically deprived backgrounds, with around 79% of our home undergraduates coming from the region.
Bradford is a hive of enterprise: we are a key partner in West Yorkshire Investment Zone (through our Bradford Digitisation Hub), backed by West Yorkshire Combined Authority; we are one of the main sponsors of Bradford Manufacturing Weeks (organised by North & West Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce), which connects students to businesses; we also run the Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem, offering funding and mentoring to take business ideas from concept to market.
The district is known for its international cuisine, art galleries and museums, including the recently renovated National Science and Media Museum and the Saltaire-based Peace Museum – and we are part of this rich tapestry, not least because of our on-campus Theatre in the Mill.
The University of Bradford is part of the fabric of the city and the district, with around 10,000 students and 1,500 staff and a campus that boasts some amazing facilities, from a fully equipped sports centre, opticians, cutting-edge research and innovation laboratories and engineering labs, a recently revamped Student Central and library, together with our open amphitheatre and wildlife gardens – we even make our own honey, thanks to our on-campus beehives.
In short, we’re proud of our city, our region and our university and most importantly, because of the difference we know we make – and can make – in people’s lives.
Our city is central to who we are. Working with our communities, employers and partners, we create opportunities, nurture talent and develop ideas with an impact far beyond our region. We are proud of Bradford, and of the contribution our students, staff and graduates make to its future. It starts in Bradford.
Job Purpose
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Success) is a pivotal member of the University Executive Team, reporting directly to the Vice-Chancellor.
This role will provide strategic leadership for the transformation of Bradford’s educational model, with primary responsibility for delivering the majority of Strategic Priority 1: Students First. The postholder will lead a step-change in student success, experience and educational performance, with a particular focus on improving NSS outcomes and supporting the University’s ambition to achieve TEF Gold.
The postholder will provide the vision, academic leadership and performance focus required to reshape Bradford’s educational offer for the students of today and the future. They will align academic provision, teaching and learning, student support and the wider student journey to improve satisfaction, continuation, completion, belonging, employability, graduate outcomes and institutional performance.
A central part of the role will be to lead through influence across a complex and matrixed institution. Working with Deans, academic leaders and professional services colleagues, the postholder will set clear strategic direction, build shared ownership and strengthen accountability for educational performance, including where there is no direct line management responsibility.
The role will also play a critical part in helping deliver Strategic Priority 4: A University that Works Better, through a more focused and financially sustainable academic portfolio, stronger educational performance, effective use of data and insight, and a more modern, flexible and responsive model of educational delivery.
This is a pivotal role in the delivery of Strategy 2035 and in strengthening Bradford’s reputation, educational distinctiveness and institutional success through a student-centered, professionally relevant, performance-driven and future-facing educational model.
Leadership Accountability
The postholder will be part of a University Executive Team that:
Core Executive Accountabilities
Within that wider corporate leadership context, the postholder will have direct executive accountability for the following core areas of educational leadership and institutional transformation.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Scope
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Success) will lead a focused educational portfolio while operating primarily through institutional influence across a complex matrixed environment.
The precise portfolio and reporting arrangements will be confirmed as the University’s operating model develops. The role is expected to provide strategic leadership for the Teaching Excellence team and may be supported by a small education and enhancement function.
Success in the role will depend on the ability to align colleagues across faculties and professional services, building shared ownership and accountability for student success, educational quality, educational performance and portfolio coherence.
The postholder will work closely with Executive colleagues to ensure that academic quality, student support, educational delivery, digital development and institutional performance are aligned to the successful delivery of Strategy 2035.
Qualifications
Essential
Desirable
Experience and Knowledge
Essential
Desirable
Leadership Style and Personal Attributes
Essential
Position
Leave & Pension
Flexible & Family-Friendly Working
Wellbeing & Campus Facilities
Travel & Commuting
Learning & Community
Further details of the full staff benefits package can be found on our University of Bradford website.
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 13th November 2026.
Applications should consist of:
Should you wish to discuss the role in strict confidence, please contact:
| Advert closes | Friday 13th November |
| Long List Meeting | Wednesday 18th November |
| Preliminary Interviews | w/c 23rd November |
| Shortlist Meeting | Tuesday 1st December |
| Final Panel Interviews | Tuesday 8th December |
