Alice Wilby

I joined the University of Northampton as Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience in February 2025.  I have spent my career in higher education, initially running widening participation projects at the University of Oxford, before moving into leadership roles at Oxford Brookes and the University of Wolverhampton.  I spent four years as a Pro Vice-Chancellor at University College Birmingham, before working as a consultant with several universities, including Royal Holloway and the University of South Wales.

I am proud of having moved between professional services and academic roles my career, and support and mentors others on similar journeys.  The thread running through all of my roles, and my research interests, has been supporting a diverse range of people to access and get the most out of university study.

My research interests focus on how universities can better support students who have taken less traditional Level 3 qualifications – particularly BTECs – to succeed within Higher Education. I am particularly interested in how students' previous educational experiences shape their trajectories, and in the links between effective academic support, cultural capital and institutional habitus, and how these are influenced (or not) by institutional policies. I particularly, though not exclusively, use the theories of Pierre Bourdieu.

Seperately, I have a side interest in developing more effective and compassionate leaders in Higher Education.