Paul WHITE

Professor Paul White is a geographer specialising in demographic and social issues. He was first appointed to a Lectureship at The University of Sheffield (TUOS) in 1974 and promoted to Professor in 1997. Between 2004 and 2015, he was a member of the executive board of TUOS, starting as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching and ending as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and also served as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University for several months. He retired from his full-time role in 2016 and was appointed as an Emeritus Professor. He has held visiting positions and professorships at University of Oxford, University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne in France, University of Zaragoza in Spain, and University of Cagliari in Italy. His current research is on comparisons between attitudes to the countryside in Europe and in China.

Professor White's responsibilities on TUOS executive board covered all aspects of the educational mission of the University, including the programme journey (from programme creation through delivery to evaluation and quality control) and the parallel student journey (from recruitment and admissions through student support to graduation and careers guidance). He also led TUOS in quality reviews carried out by the Quality Assurance Agency of Higher Education and in professional accreditations by a wide range of bodies. In addition, he continues to provide advice on quality assurance and quality enhancement issues to a number of universities in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as in several other countries. He is currently serving as the Vice-Chair of the Trustees of the Students' Union at TUOS as well as holding trustee roles in other educational institutions. He was one of the teams that led TUOS to being declared the Times Higher Education University of the Year in 2011.

In addition to his responsibilities in TUOS, Professor White has also taken on a number of national roles in UK. He spent three years as the Co-chair of the Higher Education Academy's Pro-Vice-Chancellor Network, and also led the national project considering the introduction of Grade Point Averages in UK universities. He served for six years on the strategic advisory committee providing advice on teaching issues to the Higher Education Funding Council of England. In 2011, he was elected as the Chair of the Russell Group's Learning and Teaching Network. He is involved with the Advance Higher Education in advising UK university governing bodies on academic governance, and he also undertakes mentoring and provides advice on academic promotions in a range of institutions. In 2016, Professor White was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours list 'for services to higher education'. He is also one of Her Majesty the Queen's Deputy Lieutenants for South Yorkshire.