Professor Shân Wareing welcomes regional leaders to celebratory event of University’s contributions to London and around the world
Middlesex University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Shân Wareing focused on the importance of higher education to individuals and to communities, to the prosperity of the UK, and to achieve solutions to complex global problems in her speech at a ceremony yesterday [15 January] to mark her inauguration.
As well as describing her personal journey, she spoke to an audience which included the Mayor of Barnet, Barnet Council representatives, employers, leaders from local schools and colleges and higher education sector bodies about her commitment to widening access to higher education, the University’s successes and her hopes for the future of the Middlesex community.
Professor Wareing began her academic career as a lecturer in English language and linguistics at the University of Roehampton where she became increasingly interested in the practice of teaching and curious about the lack of focus on learning and teaching in post compulsory education. This was the start of a journey leading change in higher education, and in approaches to learning, digital transformation, and leadership development. Her initial questions about how to teach better evolved into questions about how to lead better, and she published research on building teams, equality, diversity and inclusion, gender and leadership, and the impact of technology on education.
“I wanted to make changes in higher education through leadership and to change leadership itself – who leads and how we lead – and I was able to enter dialogue with the wider sector through contributing to courses and higher education platforms such as Wonkhe. This was connected to my original goal as a student and academic of wanting to learn from others, share what I was learning, and enable others to grow.”
Professor Wareing held a leading role in the national Staff and Education Development Association, and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship, a Professorship in Teaching in Higher Education, and became a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She also led successful change while building organisational capabilities in many university roles.
Professor Wareing, who joined the University in April 2024, told her audience: “Our vision is to transform outcomes for individual students and for the communities and regions in which we’re embedded. University is both an individual and public good from which we all benefit. It underpins our collective prosperity, our services and our professions. It supports culture and the arts, and the UK’s international reputation.”
Professor Wareing highlighted how the University’s approach aligns closely with Government priorities for universities, in particular through its role as a sustainable and multidisciplinary anchor institution serving, supporting and sustaining its local regions in Hendon in the London Borough of Barnet, as well as its global campuses in Dubai, Mauritius and China.
The University’s research and knowledge exchange partnerships underpin its courses and help solve the global challenges the world is facing, especially those set out under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. By doing so, the University strengthens its relationships with others, such as businesses, public sector providers, charities, local, national and international governments.
While acknowledging the challenges facing higher education, Professor Wareing emphasised that the University would emerge successfully, pointing to the changes it had already come through over its 146-year history since it started as a teacher training college in North London. She celebrated achievements which included producing 1,800 graduates in nursing and midwifery every year, and close to 500 teachers and 230 social workers, to training 1,443 apprentices and helping under-represented groups into careers in the creative industries.
Rebecca Lawrence, Chair of Board of Governors at Middlesex University, congratulated Professor Wareing on her appointment.
She said: Professor Wareing has built over 20 years of distinguished leadership experience in higher education. She is a leader who has always focussed on the development of the student and a commitment to excellence. She has a passion for broadening access to high quality education rooted in place: in the North London community of this great global city and the regions in which the University operates around the world. Professor Wareing’s experience gives this University the strength and leadership it needs to meet society’s quite rightly high expectations of higher education and to ensure our students and communities continue to thrive.”
