Pro-Vice-Chancellor; Education and Student Success

Post Type: Full Time

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: Friday 13 November 2026

Reference: AQ3577

The University of Bradford is entering a significant phase of transformation and is seeking an ambitious and performance-focused Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Success) to lead the next stage of its educational development.

Reporting to the Vice-Chancellor, this is a pivotal executive role with primary responsibility for delivering the majority of Strategic Priority 1:
Students First. You 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.

This is a significant educational transformation brief. You will bring the vision and academic leadership to reshape Bradford’s educational offer for the students of today and the future, creating a more coherent, distinctive and high-performing model that strengthens continuation, completion, satisfaction, belonging, employability and graduate outcomes.

A key priority will be to translate data, insight and student evidence into measurable improvement. You will strengthen the University’s approach to educational performance, using leading and lagging indicators to identify priorities, interven where performance is below expectation and build sustained improvement in student outcomes and experience.

You will also lead the strategic development of the academic portfolio, balancing student demand, educational quality, professional relevance and financial sustainability. This will require commercial awareness alongside academic judgement, and the confidence to make difficult choices while identifying opportunities for innovation, including digital, flexible and non-traditional modes of education.

The role will operate predominantly through influence rather than direct line management. Working across faculties and professional services, you will set clear strategic direction, engage academic communities and strengthen accountability for delivery. You will need to demonstrate that you have led significant educational change before, brought colleagues with you and delivered tangible results in a complex environment.

Alongside responsibility for academic quality, standards, educational assurance and regulatory confidence, you will provide strategic leadership for teaching and learning and the Teaching Excellence team, ensuring that enhancement, pedagogic innovation and academic development support the University’s wider ambitions.

As a member of the University Executive Team, you will contribute to the leadership of the whole institution and to the delivery of Strategy 2035. This is a role for an academically credible leader who combines strategic ambition with a strong performance and delivery focus, and who is comfortable operating in an institution undergoing significant change.

We are seeking candidates with a strong track record of senior academic leadership and educational transformation within a large and complex organisation. You will bring clear evidence of improving student experience and educational performance, ideally including significant improvement in NSS, TEF or comparable measures, and experience of reshaping educational provision in response to changing student needs and institutional priorities.

Confronting Inequality :
Celebrating Diversity

At the University of Bradford we accept people for who they are regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sex, marital status, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation or socio-economic background and whether you’re pregnant or on maternity leave.

In line with the University’s commitment to equality charters including Athena Swan, Race Equality Charter, Disability Confident and Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme, we welcome applications from people identifying with these characteristics. The University has a number of staff networks which provide peer support and safe spaces for staff who hold these and other identities.