Chancellor

The Chancellor is the ceremonial head of the University. The Rt Hon Alan Milburn became Chancellor of Lancaster University on 1 January 2015, when he succeeded the University's second Chancellor, mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington CVO CBE DL.

Chancellor Alan Milburn in a university cap and gown.

The former Chair of the Social Mobility Commission and former Cabinet Minister was Labour MP for Darlington (1992 to 2010) and now runs his own consultancy, advising governments and corporations worldwide.

He credits the skills he learned at Lancaster, where he studied history, as a foundation for the whole of his working life and career. He was later awarded an honorary degree in 2000.

He won the Darlington seat next to Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency in 1992 and was immediately identified as one of the Labour party's modernisers. He went on to serve within the UK Government as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Health (1999 and 2003) and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, before his decision to stand down from Parliament in 2010.

His more recent focus has been on social mobility. In 2009, Alan Milburn chaired a governmental commission, the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions. Its report recommended improvements in social mobility by acting at every life stage - school, university, internship and recruitment. This work continued as Chair of the Commission on Social Mobility and Child Poverty (now the Social Mobility Commission) to which he was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark E. Smith said: “We are delighted to welcome Alan as Chancellor in the year of Lancaster’s 50th Anniversary, especially as an alumnus. The University, like him, is committed to making sure that higher education is open to all young people to develop their talents, whatever their social or economic background.

“I would also like to pay tribute to Sir Chris Bonington who retires this year after ten tremendous years of being committed to Lancaster as our Chancellor. We look forward to a continuing association with Chris.”

The Rt Hon Alan Milburn said: “I am honoured to follow in Chris’s footsteps. He has been an outstanding Chancellor of a great university. It is a privilege to become Chancellor of the university that gave me such strong foundations for my life and career. Now, as then, Lancaster is leading the way in creating opportunities for young people to realise their aspirations in life. I look forward to working with students and staff in making Lancaster University even more successful in future.”

Alan Milburn is Lancaster’s third Chancellor, the first being the founding Chancellor HRH Princess Alexandra who served from 1964 – 2004 and who was one of the longest serving university chancellors in the UK.

Lancaster University Leadership

More about Lancaster University's senior roles:

Sarah Kemp

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Engagement)

Professor Sarah Kemp

Sarah Kemp is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement. She leads on the Knowledge Exchange Framework and the Civic University’s Agreement. Lancaster University places equal weight on the quality of its teaching, its research and its engagement, as all are critical to the civic responsibility of a university in the 21st Century. She leads on the Eden North project and broader external engagement with National Cyber Force and is the senior management link to the Chaplaincy.

Sarah has built a career which is fluid across many sectors within the private and public sector arena, building on an original foundation as a science and technology graduate of Kings College London. She subsequently became a successful international business development manager in life science and scientific instrumentation markets, at which time she also successfully completed a Master's in Business Administration.

Sarah is an expert practitioner of economic development, regeneration, inward investment and delivering large scale capital programmes at a North West regional level and on behalf of the City Regions of Greater Manchester and Liverpool. Sarah has delivered strong results when working at the interface between the public, private and education sectors, convening and facilitating durable partnerships, working to capitalise on new and emerging opportunities and to address some of the UK’s more intractable socio-economic challenges.

Most recently, as Chief Executive for Lancashire Local Economic Partnership, Sarah was responsible for developing and implementing Lancashire's Economic Strategy, delivery of Lancashire’s £374m Growth Deal Programme and she secured a further £34m of Getting Building Fund to invest in projects which created new jobs and stimulated the green economy. She was responsible for partnership delivery of BOOST Growth Hub, Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub and strategic delivery of Lancashire's four Enterprise Zones.

Working with partners, including Lancaster University, Sarah secured the Government decision to establish the new National Cyber security Centre at Samlesbury, as part of a £5bn Government investment, which recognised the outstanding cyber and security related credentials of the University as core to Lancashire's proposition.

Personal Assistant:

Email: vcoexecteam@lancaster.ac.uk