Lincoln welcomes new Deputy Vice Chancellor

The University of Lincoln, UK, has welcomed Professor Susan Rigby as its new Deputy Vice Chancellor.

Professor Rigby joins the senior management team at Lincoln from the University of Edinburgh, where she was most recently Vice Principal for Learning and Teaching.

She takes up a newly created role at Lincoln with oversight of the student journey from applicant to alumni. As Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Development), she will focus on supporting academic staff to deliver inspirational teaching, an excellent student experience and meaningful student engagement.

A highly experienced academic who has been leading teaching and learning development at Edinburgh for a number of years, Professor Rigby is recognised as an innovator in higher education practice with a particular specialism in the development of academic leadership. She has pioneered the development of new academic training programmes, introduction of digital learning resources and creation of new employer engagement and student employability opportunities.

Professor Mary Stuart, Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, said: “We are delighted to welcome Sue to the leadership team at Lincoln. She brings an outstanding academic background as a researcher, educator and innovator. Perhaps most importantly, she shares our conviction that students should be at the very heart of our academic community, not just in principle but in practice.”

Professor Rigby was educated at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where she was a Junior Research Fellow of Emmanuel College, specialising in Earth Sciences. After a spell lecturing at the University of Leicester, she moved to Edinburgh in 1995. Before her appointment as Vice Principal for Learning and Teaching in 2012, she served as Assistant Principal of Student Progression and Head of Department in the Grant Institute of Geology as well as Academic Curator at the Cockburn Museum.

A Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, she also sits on the UK’s Higher Education Public Information Steering Group, where she chairs the sub-committee on postgraduate information needs. She has worked on governance structures of both the National Student Survey and Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey. Professor Susan Rigby said: “I’m excited to be joining a university with such a clear and distinctive sense of its own identity and direction. Lincoln has a well-earned reputation for innovation in teaching and learning. I look forward to working with colleagues across the institution to build on this expertise, and of course, to meeting students and listening to their ideas and aspirations for their university.”