Julie Sanders is Vice-Chancellor and Principal at Royal Holloway, University of London. She was previously the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Newcastle University (2018-2022) and prior to that was Newcastle’s Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Humanities and Social Sciences (2015-2018). Before joining Newcastle, she had held leadership positions at the University of Nottingham including Head of the School of English (2010-2013) and then Vice-Provost for Teaching and Learning at the University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus in China (2013-2015).
Through collaborative co-creation with colleagues and students, Julie led the design and implementation of Royal Holloway’s strategy, RH2030s, which launched in 2024. Social purpose is at the centre of the strategy, reflecting a university-wide understanding of learning opportunities and research excellence as things that truly matter, to individuals and societies.
Julie is passionate about the opportunities that collaboration, partnerships and interdisciplinary work afford. She is on the Advisory Board for leading UK higher education think HEPI (Higher Education Policy Institute), and has served on steering groups including for sector advocacy group Universities UK and Research England. As an academic, her research and education interests are in early modern drama and adaptation studies and she continues to publish in the field.