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. The Reverend Canon Professor Peter Neil began in the role on 1 May 2013.
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.
Reverend Canon Professor Peter Neil
The Rev Canon Professor Peter Neil was born on the Isle of Bute on the West coast of Scotland. He studied German and French at the University of Edinburgh and trained as a secondary teacher of Modern Languages at Jordanhill College of Education (now Strathclyde University) and Glasgow University. He later gained an MEd from Edinburgh.
He worked as a teacher of modern languages in Scotland before moving to Belfast where he became lecturer and senior lecturer in Education at Queen’s University Belfast. Whilst at Queen’s he established the Northern Ireland Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (NICILT), was responsible for the PGCE secondary course and introduced master's’ courses and CPD for language teachers across Northern Ireland. He also completed a PhD in Education and began studying theology, gaining an MDiv from Union Theological College; he particularly enjoyed the challenge of learning Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Syriac in the context of his theological study.
In 2003 he took up post as director of Education and Lifelong Learning at Aberystwyth University and was responsible for managing a merged School which included the degree through the medium of Welsh, teacher Education courses, a diverse portfolio of lifelong learning courses and a centre for educational studies which produced materials for the Welsh‐medium school sector. In Aberystwyth he learned enough Welsh to communicate and was accepted for the priesthood in the Church in Wales, training at St Michael’s College, Llandaff, Cardiff.
He was ordained in St David’s Cathedral and served in three parishes in mid‐Wales as Assistant Curate. During this time he completed an MPhil in Theology at Cardiff University in ordinary theology, researching in the context of local rural churches. He returned to his native Scotland as Head of the School of Education and latterly as interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education, Health and Social Sciences in the University of the West of Scotland.
He has written books on Language Teaching, CPD and teacher mentoring and has researched various topics ranging from language education, self‐evaluation, school leadership and ordinary theology, publishing in peer‐refereed journals and speaking at international conferences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is currently Chair of the University Association for Lifelong Learning (UALL) and Govenor of the Europe Chapter of the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC).
He served with the Scottish Episcopal Church as Assistant Priest in three parishes within the South Ayrshire Team. He is continuing research in theology at the St Mary’s and St Giles’ Centre, Wales and is currently visiting professor at Glyndŵr University.
He was installed as Canon in Lincoln Cathedral and Prebyndery of Dunholme in Newport.
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