A message from the VC
News
A welcome and Happy New Year message from the new Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University
Thursday, 2 January, 2025Hello everyone. My name is Georgina Andrews, and I am the new Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University. I would like to start by wishing you all a very Happy New Year.
This is my first week in post as your new Vice-Chancellor. As we welcome in the new year together, I have made some resolutions for the University.
It is such an exciting time in our history. In 2025 it will have been 20 years since Bath Spa University was granted Degree-awarding powers, but our history of teaching and learning goes back much further, to our roots as Bath School of Art in 1852.
The BSU community is a special group of people. Our staff are passionate, dedicated and experts in their field. Our learners are diverse, vibrant and change-makers for the future. What unites us all is our creativity, curiosity and confidence and the desire to make a difference in the world. We are rooted in the world heritage city of Bath, but our community stretches much further to BSUL (our site in London) and our valued partners that support diverse cohorts of learners across the UK and overseas.
My first resolution is that I will support you all to ensure that BSU claims our rightful position as a successful and professionally creative University for the future.
BSU has grown significantly over recent years and has established firm foundations for future success. We have expanded our curriculum to include professionally creative ‘new curriculum’ courses in subjects such as Law, Architecture, Wildlife Conservation, Biomedical Sciences, Forensic Science, Sports Management, Sport and Exercise Nutrition and Sports Media Production. New degree courses for 2025/6 include Primary Education with QTS, Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence and Data, and an MSc in Accounting and Finance.
My second resolution is as Vice-Chancellor I will ensure that we continue to innovate, and to enshrine teaching, learning and the student experience as our top strategic priority. I am passionate about inclusion, widening participation, and the transformative power of higher education.
My third resolution is that as Vice-Chancellor I will champion parity of esteem between world leading research, impactful knowledge exchange, and teaching excellence. I believe all three should be interconnected, sustainable and inclusive.
BSU champions the transformative power of education and believes that institutions such as ours make a vital contribution, not just to our economy but to society. Through our students, our staff and our work we contribute to inclusive growth; we play a crucial civic role in our communities; and we have a key role to play in enhancing the UK’s reputation across the globe.
We believe that anyone who has the ability and determination to learn should have the opportunity to access higher education, to realise their talent and thrive, for their own benefit and for the wider good.
BSU was proud to have been recognised by The Sunday Times as the University of the Year for Social Inclusion for 2024. Inclusion is part of the Bath Spa University DNA, and is one of our four core values together with respect, collaboration and sustainability.
For the past two decades, we have worked with educational partners to support learners in many different communities. BSU currently works with sixteen educational partners, and we welcome and value a broad and diverse range of students to our learning community.
There is so much to look forward to in 2025. In the first half of the year, I am looking forward to the Vice-Chancellor’s awards. It is so important that we take a moment each year to pause and celebrate our vibrant community of staff and students. I encourage you all to consider making a nomination when they open, and I look forward to announcing the winners in the Spring.
As your Vice-Chancellor, I want to be as available and transparent with you as possible. Please keep a look out in the coming weeks for details of my February Town Halls, where my senior team and I will share more of our vision for BSU in the coming year. We will be visiting the Newton Park and Locksbrook campuses in Bath, as well as Bath Spa University London, and we will also be running sessions online.
Finally, to those students who will be taking assessments and examinations this month, good luck! You can do this!
I look forward to working with you this year. If you have any feedback or ideas for our joint ambitions, please do get in touch. Meanwhile, welcome back. Here's to a great term. I look forward to working with you all in 2025 and wish you all the very best for this New Year.