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Professor Dame Sally Mapstone DBE, FRSE is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews. She was appointed in 2016.
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone FRSE is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, a medievalist, and a leading figure in Scottish and UK higher education policy development and reform. Dame Sally assumed the role of President of Universities UK in August 2023.
Sally read English Language and Literature as an undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford, before working as an editor at the Weidenfeld and Nicolson publishing house in London. She later returned to Oxford to attain her DPhil for a thesis on the advice to princes tradition in Older Scots literature. She spent her subsequent academic career at Oxford, where she became Professor of Older Scots Literature in 2013. She is an emeritus Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and an honorary Fellow of Wadham and St Cross Colleges.
At Oxford, Sally also took on several senior leadership roles including Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Personnel and Equality (2009–2011) and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education (2011–16). In the latter role, she assumed responsibility for Oxford's strategy and policies for teaching, learning, student support, and admissions.
In 2016, Sally was appointed as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews. During her tenure, she has safeguarded and enhanced St Andrews' international excellence in teaching and research through the creation and implementation of the University Strategy (2022–27), which positions social responsibility at the heart of university life, through a commitment to becoming net zero by 2035, and a prioritisation of diversity and inclusivity across the community.
At a national level, Professor Mapstone is also Chair of the Higher Education Policy Institute board and has previously served as the Convener of Universities Scotland and as Vice-Chair of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.
The UK Higher Education sector is outstanding for its inventiveness and its creativity as well as its resilience, and my job will be to harness those characteristics in representing and advocating for all our universities.
Universities at their most essential level exist to find and bring out the best in people; representing the sector means representing the remarkable staff and students who make the UK sector the envy of the world.
Our monthly updates are a great way for you to stay up to date with our work, events, and higher education news.