Vice-Chancellor

Professor Geoffrey Crossick became Vice-Chancellor of the University in September 2010, moving to the post after five years as Warden of Goldsmiths, University of London.

He had been Chief Executive of the Arts & Humanities Research Board between 2002 and 2005, taking it through to its establishment as a full research council alongside those in the sciences and social sciences.

The role of Vice-Chancellor
The Vice-Chancellor is the principal officer of the University and is responsible to the Board of Trustees for the organisation and conduct of the business of the University.

The part-time office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor - currently filled by Professor Paul Webley , Director and Principal of the School of Oriental and African Studies - is normally filled by a Head of College. See Structure of the University.

The Vice-Chancellor sits on the University Board of Trustees and chairs the Collegiate Council.

Profile of Professor Crossick
Professor Crossick studied history at Cambridge after which he undertook doctoral research at Birkbeck, University of London. He is a social historian specialising in the urban social history of 19th and 20th century Britain and continental Europe (particularly France where he spent a year teaching at the University of Lyon 2).

He has published and/or edited seven books and over 40 articles which have appeared in journals and edited collections. He has written widely on the petite bourgeoisie of shopkeepers and master artisans, including The Petite Bourgeoisie in Europe 1780-1914: Enterprise, Family and Independence, which he wrote with Heinz-Gerhard Haupt.

He was Professor of History at the University of Essex, where he was also Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Development) between 1997 and his departure in 2002.

Professor Crossick plays a prominent role in national higher education policy making and debate, and is a member of the Board of Universities UK and its Research Policy Committee, as well as being appointed to the Enterprise & Skills Committee of the Higher Education Funding Council for England with whom he also works closely on research policy issues. He is Chair of the university sector’s Financial Sustainability Strategy Group. His essay The future is more than just tomorrow: higher education, the economy and the longer term was published by Universities UK in September 2010.

Professor Crossick is active in debates about the importance of the arts and humanities, including relations between universities and the creative industries. He has published an influential lecture given in 2006 to the Royal Society of Arts on Knowledge transfer without widgets: the challenge of the creative economy.

He is a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum, a member of the Governing Board of the Courtauld Institute of Art and a member of the British Library Advisory Council. He is Chair of the Trinity Long Room Hub, the arts and humanities research centre of Trinity College Dublin. A Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Arts, he was in 2004 elected an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Professor Crossick is married to Rita Vaudrey, and they live in London and Suffolk. They have two adult sons. His leisure interests include music and a passion for Tottenham Hotspur.

Other Charities

The Courtauld Institute
The Samuel Courtauld Trust
The National Maritime Museum

Contact the Vice-Chancellor

Please email vice-chancellor@london.ac.uk