I am delighted to confirm that the current Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost, Professor Bernie Morley has agreed to accept the role of Acting Vice-Chancellor and be the University’s Accountable Officer from the start of the new academic session on Sept 1st until the arrival in post of a new Vice-Chancellor. Professor Morley will be ably supported by the current Pro-Vice-Chancellors and senior team during his tenure.
As Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Morley will have overall responsibility both as the academic leader and chief executive at an important time for the University. As part of our strategy we have a number of key projects which are at crucial stages; on the Claverton Down campus we will shortly be opening the Milner Centre for Evolution and hope to be starting work on the new School of Management building - whilst on the Bristol and Bath Science Park, the Institute of Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems (IAAPS) project will help the UK retain its position as a global leader in automotive research.
On behalf of University Council I want to take this opportunity to thank Professor Morley for taking on this key role and I know all members of the University community will support him and wish him well.
Thomas Sheppard Chair, University Council
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Professor Bernie Morley initially joined the University of Bath in 2010 as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching and was appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor & Provost in 2015.
Having studied Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool, his home town, as an undergraduate, Bernie completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford in 1984 in Molecular Immunology, working on the genetics of the Complement System under Professor Rodney Porter and Dr Duncan Campbell. He worked at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, and at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at Oxford University, before taking up his first academic appointment at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in 1991. After the merger of the RPMS and Imperial College London he remained as part of the Rheumatology Unit and became a Professor of Molecular Genetics. His research has focused on the genetics of autoimmune diseases, specifically Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and he has published widely in the area of autoimmune genetics and the Complement System.
Outside the University Professor Morley acted as an international adviser to the Irish Higher Education Authority for a review of PhD education. He also served as adviser to the Irish Universities Quality Board in rewriting its national guidelines of "Good practice in the organisation of PhD programmes in Irish Higher Education". He was a member of HEFCE’s Quality Accreditation and Regulation Strategic Advisory Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Arthritis Research UK Biomedical Sciences Panel and co-convenor of the PVC/DVC network for the Higher Education Academy.
He is a member of the Bath and North East Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board and a governor at three schools in the area.