Thank you for your interest in the position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bradford at such a pivotal moment in our history.
The University of Bradford has an enviable reputation for academic excellence, research and innovation, inclusion, social mobility and employability. This stems in part from its history as England’s 40th university, founded amidst the ‘white heat of technology’, a term coined by its first Chancellor, UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
Examples of Bradford’s innovation and excellence are numerous. We established England’s first university business school, innovated in employment-related delivery models and in areas of research that have made significant contributions in the fields of artificial intelligence, diagnostic radiography, dementia care, cancer research, archaeology, nanotechnology, health and social care and much more.
But higher education is changing.
While 18-year-olds rightly expect their education to enable them to thrive in the world of work, radical change in the global economy requires a much sharper focus on lifelong learning for the growing number of adults who will otherwise be denied that opportunity. That requires new models of delivery and a renewed focus on employment outcomes. All this at a time when the entire HE sector is under significant financial pressure.
Despite the pressures, HE is entering a period of opportunity. The University of Bradford is determined to serve the growing needs of lifelong learners who seek the knowledge and skills that employers demand. We must project our university to many more people than we do today and harness new technologies with a culture of innovation, reimagining the white heat of technology for education and research.
Ours is a strategy for growth. We have set a clear path to step up and address the changing demands for knowledge, education and skills. It is central to our mission and vision to enable people to progress and society to benefit. This will not be an easy journey but few worthwhile endeavours are.
We have taken the long view, setting a 10-year strategy centred on four pillars: putting students first, significantly widening access, driving more focused and impactful research and transforming the way we work. Its implementation will require imagination, courage and trust – in ourselves, our partners and each other. Our new Vice-Chancellor will play a pivotal role in leading its delivery for the benefit of students, society and everyone who works here.
As Chair of Council, I can tell you there is no more important and rewarding role than that of Vice-Chancellor. It will demand clarity of purpose, a commitment to inclusion and the ability to mobilise people and systems around a bold, future-facing agenda.
If you are interested in being part of a university that is ambitious, values-led and ready to shape the future of HE, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
The University of Bradford is a national leader in social mobility, recognised as England’s top university for transforming lives through education and we have the credentials to prove it. We have won more awards for social mobility than any other higher education institution.
This is a pivotal moment for the University as we seek to balance challenges affecting the entire HE sector with our ambition to become world-leading in the fields of applied AI, entrepreneurship, research and innovation and health and social care, while building on those areas in which we are already world renowned, such as archaeology, cancer therapeutics, polymer research, radiography, peace studies and business.
As we prepare to enter our 60th anniversary year, and to carry forward the legacy of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, of which we are a strategic partner, we are seeking to appoint a new Vice-Chancellor with the passion, vision and commitment to lead the University, to uphold our values-driven strategy, build on our strengths and seize new opportunities in an evolving HE landscape.
We already have an enviable reputation in many fields, not least being ranked number one on the Higher Education Policy Institute’s Social Mobility Index in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, and named Daily Mail University of the Year for Social Inclusion 2026.
More than half of our roughly 10,000 students come from disadvantaged backgrounds and yet according to the most recent Higher Education Statistics Agency data, 92 per cent of those students are in work or further study 15 months after graduating.
In the last few years, we have opened the Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI and are advancing plans to launch a satellite into space. We created Virtual Bradford, the UK’s first digital twin and we are home to the world’s foremost submarine archaeology unit. We also run accelerated entrepreneur programmes for staff and students and aim to become the number one destination in the UK for business start-ups and spin-outs within the next decade.
We are steadily climbing national ranking league tables and strengthening our reputation as a university that delivers real-world impact, academically, socially and economically.
If you’re interested in being part of a university that is redefining its future through a values-drive approach and that is committed to making a difference, we would like to hear from you.
Rankings and Awards
Key Statistics
11,665 students in the 2023/24 academic year:
1,755 staff in the 2023/2024 academic year:
Faculty of Management, Science & Engineering, includes:
Faculty of Health and Social Care:
Institute of Health and Social Care:
Institute of Digital and Sustainable Futures:
Proud partner of
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
The Vice-Chancellor 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 tom 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 will require bold and strategic leadership and the incoming Vice-Chancellor will play a pivotal role in translating 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
The Vice-Chancellor 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
The Vice-Chancellor will lead efforts to 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 strive to be recognised as the exemplar for social mobility. We aim to accelerate equality, diversity and inclusion for all and create an empowering environment that enables students and staff to achieve their full potential and make a difference.
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 in the Higher Education Policy Institute’s Social Mobility Index in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. In 2024, we were named University of the Year at the Social Mobility Awards and in August 2025 we were named Daily Mail University of the Year for Social Inclusion.
As part of creating an inclusive environment for work and study, we are members of several equality charters and national schemes including 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.
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, which is currently running a national tour of its Bussing Out exhibition.
The University of Bradford is part of the fabric of the city and the district, with just over 11,000 students and around 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 bee hives.
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.
We change lives – in 2024-25, our students received £2.8m in bursaries and scholarships, making higher education more accessible to a wider cohort, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We offer a range of scholarships for many underrepresented groups, from care leavers and asylum seekers to women in science and technology and white working-class males.
We drive innovation – in the last financial year, we were awarded £12.8m in research grants and knowledge exchange bids, delivering an array of innovative projects, from using artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to speed up organ donor transplants (with clinical trials due to start in 2026) to working with over 200 schools to increase physical activity among young people as part of the Sport England-funded Creating Active Schools initiative.
We power the local economy – last year, we spent £10.6m with over 100 local suppliers; we are a key partner of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture; we run Bradford Digitisation Hub, working with dozens of SMEs across West Yorkshire; we are the anchor institution for the groundbreaking Bradford Energy Network (an £8.4m city-wide heat network); we are the main sponsor of Bradford AFC; we compile the Bradford’s Top 100 Businesses annual guide in partnership with the Telegraph & Argus and we are supporting over 30 business start-ups through our entrepreneur ecosystem.
We’re first in class – we are best in the country at improving people’s life chances – more than half our students come from deprived backgrounds and yet 92% are in work or further study 15 months after graduating; we are first to offer all our student nurses naloxone anti-overdose drug training; we are 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; we are one of the first British Universities of Sanctuary, one of the first Adobe Creative Campuses, the first to offer its students a ‘one-stop-shop’ Santander ‘app’, and first in the world to launch a programme module codesigned by people living with dementia.
We connect globally – we are founder of the World Technology University Network and this year hosted 2025 International AMRI Conference, showcasing cutting-edge research in biopharma, med-tech, and sustainable polymer science, particularly in conjunction with universities in China. In September we hosted the launch of the UN Human Development Report 2025, which discusses responsible AI, in addition to a global conference on radiography.
Leading with purpose – we are committed to putting students first, to widening access and to enhancing our research and innovation portfolio and in the next 10 years we aim to become a hot-spot for UK start-ups, thanks to our enterprise ecosystem.
Purpose of the Role
The Vice-Chancellor is the University’s Chief Executive Officer and academic lead, accountable for implementing the University’s strategy. This strategy is built around four pillars: Putting students first to deliver excellent student experience and outcomes, grow our reputation for high-impact research, significantly widen access to reach many thousands of new learners, and transforming how the university works to ensure long-term financial sustainability. They will shape the future of the University through innovation and impact, leading a culture of accountability and teamwork in alignment with the University’s values, vision and mission.
Their leadership will be bold, imaginative and values-based, with a bias to operational delivery. They will promote the reputation of the University locally, nationally and globally.
Key Accountabilities
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Qualifications
Experience
Essential
Desirable
Knowledge and Skills
Leadership Competencies
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 17th October 2025.
Applications should consist of:
Should you wish to discuss the role in strict confidence, please contact:
| Closing Date | noon on Friday 17th October |
| Preliminary Interviews with Anderson Quigley | w/c 27th October & w/c 3rd November |
| Shortlisting Meeting | Thursday 13 November |
| Psychometric Assessments and Media Testing | w/c 17th November & w/c 24th November |
| Open Invitation for Final Candidates to Visit Campus | w/c 17th/24th November & 1 December |
| Online Meeting with the Chair of Council for Final Candidates | Friday 5th December 1000hrs-1600hrs |
| Stakeholder Meetings with Candidates in Bradford | Monday 8th December |
| Final Panel Interviews in Bradford | Tuesday 9th December |
www.bradford.ac.uk/about 