Professor Aulay Mackenzie

Aulay joined the University as Pro Vice-Chancellor in December 2016. He is responsible for partnerships (UK and international), enterprise & innovation and international student recruitment.

His academic background is in evolutionary and population ecology (BSc (Hons) Edinburgh, PhD East Anglia), and he was a faculty member of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex, teaching and researching in this area.

Aulay has also held roles as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Partnerships) at Teesside University, Principal of the Edge Hotel School, and Dean of Academic Partnerships at the University of Essex. He has extensive experience in the development and oversight of educational partnerships, both in the UK and overseas.

He has been involved in higher education quality assurance processes with the UK's Quality Assurance Agency, acting as an auditor, reviewer and review manager under a number of different methodologies (including Degree Awarding Powers) and including reviews of the universities of Oxford, Loughborough, Leeds Metropolitan, BPP, Birkbeck (University of London) and Cardiff, as well as a number of private colleges. He is currently the Chair of the Council for Validating Universities, a higher education sector body.

Aulay has expertise in technology-enhanced learning and the online and blended delivery of higher education, and spent two years in the private sector in leading roles in this space.