News

University of Durham announces senior management appointment

(7 April 2004)

The University of Durham has appointed Professor Philip Jones to the senior management post of Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Sub-Warden. He will be joining the senior management team at Durham in August of this year.

The post, at deputy vice-chancellor level, includes special responsibilities for external relations and regional partnerships.

Professor Jones is currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield where he has held the posts of Director of the Legal Practice Course, Dean of the Faculty of Law and, since 1998, has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor.

At Durham, Professor Jones becomes a member of the University Executive Committee and will take a lead in a number of key initiatives. He joins the University at a time of growing activity through partnerships in the region and further afield – including spin-out companies and collaboration between business and research.

Professor Jones said: “I am delighted to be joining the University at an exciting time in its development. It is a top ten University with an international reputation for its research and the quality of its teaching, it is located in a beautiful part of the country, and it works with a region that recognises the importance of universities as a source of innovation, enrichment and development.”

In his role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield Professor Jones has a specific responsibility for learning and teaching, information services and student services. From July 2000 to July 2003 Professor Jones was Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor deputising for Sheffield’s Vice-Chancellor in his absence.

Professor Jones is a member of the White Rose Executive, a collaborative partnership between the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. He chairs the White Rose Centre for Enterprise and chaired the White Rose Consortium team that was responsible for winning the £25 million bid to run the National Science Learning Centre.

While at Sheffield, he has been active in the development of the University’s regional strategy. He has also been a member of the South Yorkshire Learning & Skills Council since its inception in 2001 and chairs the Academic Development Committee of Yorkshire Universities. He is a member of HEFCE’s Quality Assurance and Learning and Teaching Committee. His research interests are focused on the acquisition and teaching of professional legal skills.

Professor Jones succeeds the current Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Sub-Warden, Professor John Anstee, who retires from that post in July.

Vice-Chancellor Sir Kenneth Calman said: “I am delighted that such a distinguished and experienced academic leader has accepted the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor. I am confident Philip Jones will play a vital role in the future development of the University and we look forward to welcoming him to Durham.”

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Notes to Editors

• After graduating from the Polytechnic of Central London in 1972 with an LLB Hons, Professor Jones went on to gain an LLM in 1973 from the London School of Economics. He was then awarded an MA in Sociology in 1979 from the University of Essex, and a Postgraduate Diploma in the Practice of Higher Education from the University of Surrey in 1990.
• Philip Jones is an active rock climber, orienteer and telemark skier.

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Dionne Hamil, Public Relations Officer Tel 0191 334 6078.