Current President - Professor Sally Mapstone

Principal and Vice-Chancellor

University of St Andrews

Sally Mapstone is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews.  The core values of her Principalship are excellence, inclusiveness and fairness.

Before taking up the role of Principal her academic career was spent at the University of Oxford, where she read English Language and Literature, gained her doctorate on Older Scots literature, and became Professor of Older Scots Literature in the Faculty of English. She is an Emeritus Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and St Cross College, Oxford. Earlier in her career she worked as an editor in the book publishing industry.

Her research deals with literature in Scots and in Latin before 1707, with political literature, and with book history. She is Honorary President of the Scottish Text Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, and a Fellow of the English Association.

At Oxford she also served as Junior Proctor (2006-7); Chair of the English Faculty Board, (2007-10); Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Personnel and Equality (2009-11), and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education (2011-6). She maintains a strong interest in issues of equality and access.

Professor Mapstone also has a long-standing engagement in international issues. In 2017 she received the Foreign Policy Association of America medal for services to higher education, and is an Honorary Fellow of the FPA. She chairs the international advisory board for the University of Helsinki.

Professor Mapstone is a member of the board of Universities UK, a member of the Higher Education Policy Institute advisory board, and a trustee of UCAS.

June 2018