Principal and Vice-Chancellor

Professor Petra Wend PhD FRSA

Professor Petra Wend took up her post as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh at the beginning of September 2009.

Prior to that, she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Deputy Chief Executive at Oxford Brookes University from 2005 – 2009.

Fluent in five languages, Petra has worked consistently throughout her career as an academic to cross borders, geographically and socially, in order to realise the full potential of the institutions with which she has been associated.

Professor Wend originally read Italian and French Language and Literature, and Education at the University of Münster in Germany and gained a PhD in Italian Language and Literature at Leeds University. She went on to teach German and Italian at Middlesex University, rising to senior management roles before being appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of North London, now London Metropolitan University, where she subsequently became Pro Vice Chancellor (Learning and Teaching). She joined Oxford Brookes University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Deputy Chief Executive in 2005.

With a research background in institutional strategies underpinning successful leadership, improvements in student experience and university performance indicators, Professor Wend has a significant profile of academic publications and invited lectures. She holds a number of formal advisory roles on UK and international committees and boards. In 2008 she took part in Harvard Business School’s Women’s Leadership Forum, is a member of the Society of Renaissance Studies and recently became a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA) .

Currently, she chairs Universities Scotland’s (the umbrella body for all Scottish universities) Learning and Teaching Committee; and is a member of the Executive Committee of Universities Scotland; she is a member of the Board of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAAHE) (UK); the joint Government and Scottish Funding Council’s Skills Committee and the Edinburgh Business Leadership Forum. As such she is also the Chair of its Sub-committee, the Productivity and Skills Group. She is also a member of the British Council Scotland Advisory Committee and has just joined the Quality Assurance Agency Scotland Committee.

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