Julian Park to step down from PVC role

Professor Julian Park is stepping down from his role as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education & Student Experience) at the end of December 2021.

After an exceptionally busy year taking in a lead role in the University’s COVID-19 response, Julian is keen to focus on non-work activities, while also maintaining his teaching and research in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development on a part-time basis.

Julian was appointed to the role of the PVC (Education & Student Experience) in a job-share with Professor Elizabeth McCrum in January 2020.

Vice-Chancellor Robert Van de Noort said: “I am extremely grateful to Julian for the role he has played since taking up the Pro-Vice-Chancellor role in January last year. Not only has he had a leading role in our response to COVID-19 as one of the Co-Chairs of the Major Response Team – an almost full-time job in itself – he and Elizabeth have also worked together on plans to ensure that our University provides an excellent education to all of our students and makes significant progress towards its aspiration to be in the top quartile in the UK sector for teaching excellence.

“I have also really appreciated Julian’s valuable and distinct contribution as a member of the University Executive Board given his long experience of our world-leading School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. I am really pleased, though, that we will continue to benefit from Julian’s skills and experience as a researcher and educator in sustainable farming systems.”

The PVC (Education & Student Experience) role will continue to be on a job-share basis, and the process to recruit a replacement will be initiated soon.

University career

Before taking up his current role,  Julian was the Head of the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. He had been in the role since 2014.

Prior to that, he was the Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Life Sciences. He has teaching interests in management and approaches to sustainable development and fieldwork learning, whilst his research focuses on sustainable farming systems, technology transfer in agricultural and environmental systems and rural development and environmental change.

He is a University Teaching Fellow and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In 2008, he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy and in 2018 was part of a team with Chester and Sheffield that were awarded an AdvanceHE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence for enhancing fieldwork learning.