Chancellor & Vice-Chancellor | Bishop Grosseteste University

The Chancellor of Bishop Grosseteste University is Dr Tracy Borman, who was installed into the role on 28 July 2022.

The Chancellor role includes the following elements:

Acting as a ceremonial figurehead at major public events, particularly at Graduation
Promoting and encouraging all aspects of the University’s mission
Acting as an ambassador for the University, advancing its interests within their sphere of influence
Exercising a pastoral interest and concern for the activities of the students, staff and alumni of the University

The Vice Chancellor of BGU is responsible for running the institution on a day-to-day basis. Professor Karen Stanton began in the role on 1 August 2023.

Dr Tracy Borman

Lincoln-born, pre-eminent historian and bestselling author, Dr Tracy Borman studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PhD in 1997, as well as an honorary DLit in 2017. In January 2021, she was awarded an honorary professorship from Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, and in 2020 she was made an Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London. She is a Trustee of The Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust and a Patron of Lavenham Library, the Friends of Marble Hill House, Vectis Archaeological Trust and the Chalke Valley History Festival.

Tracy has also had a successful career in heritage and has worked for a range of historic properties and national organisations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, The National Archives and English Heritage. She is now Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust, a charity which encourages children to visit and learn from historic properties. It achieves this through initiatives such as The Sandford Award scheme, which is run in partnership with Bishop Grosseteste University and is given in recognition of high-quality heritage education. She is also joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that manages Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace, the Banqueting House, Whitehall and Hillsborough Castle.

She is a regular broadcaster and has presented a range of historical documentaries, including Inside the Tower of London and The Fall of Anne Boleyn. She is a contributor to BBC History Magazine and gives talks on her books across the country and abroad.

Specialising in the Tudor period, Tracy's books include Elizabeth’s Women, which was Book of the Week on Radio 4, Thomas Cromwell: the untold story of Henry VIII’s most faithful servant, which was a Sunday Times bestseller, The Private Lives of the Tudors and Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him. Her latest book, which was the subject of her lecture at Bishop Grosseteste University on 30 May 2022, is Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy. She has also written historical fiction, The King’s Witch trilogy, based around the Gunpowder Plot and the court of James I.

Professor Karen Stanton

Karen was born in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire and was the first person in her family to go to university. She read for her first degree in History at the University of Sheffield and holds Postgraduate qualifications from the University of Sheffield and Manchester Metropolitan University. Before beginning her academic career, she worked as a researcher for the BBC and the Home Office.

Professor Stanton’s distinguished career within Higher Education includes being the Vice-Chancellor of both York St John University and Solent University, Southampton. She has also held senior leadership roles at the universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, King’s College London, and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU).

Karen has an outstanding record of international achievements having set up University campuses in New York, Oman and a College of Nursing and Midwifery in Bangladesh. In 2014 she led the team from Glasgow Caledonian that won the Unilever Global Development Award in recognition of their work to reduce inequalities and poverty in Bangladesh.

Professor Stanton has a strong national profile and reputation for her work on the role of universities in the community and regional economy. This has included work with the UN Global Compact and supporting the Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to bring the microlending Grameen Bank to Scotland. Whilst at King’s she was Director of the Centre for Digital Humanities and at GCU she established the Centre for Climate Justice in association with Mary Robinson. At Solent she established Research Centres in Marine Sustainability and Autonomous Surface Shipping.

She is a previous Chair of the Cathedrals Group of Universities, Deputy Chair of GuildHE and a former Trustee of UCAS and the United Nations International Services. She is currently a Governor of both Corndel College London and the University of the Arts, London.

Professor Stanton is a Fellow of the RSA and a Champion of the Chartered Management Institute. She also supports sustainable businesses through her work with the Social Enterprise Accreditation Mark. She is a Patron of the Island Charity which provides a safe space for vulnerable children and young people.

In the summer of 2023, she was awarded both an Emeritus Vice Chancellorship and a Honorary Doctorate from Solent University. Professor Stanton is regularly invited to give keynote lectures at conferences on both the future of technology in Higer Education and on how Universities can expand their international portfolios.

Over her 25 year career in Higher Education Karen has dedicated herself to working with her teams to provide students with a transformational education experience and to widening participation to Higher Education.