In this vital leadership role Professor Mitchell will be instrumental in helping the University to realise its strategic ambitions to improve both the scale and quality of its doctoral provision.
She will provide strategic and operational leadership for the Doctoral College with a remit encompassing all aspects of doctoral study from identification of growth opportunities, partnership building, marketing, and recruitment through the student experience, quality assurance and academic progress to examinations and awards.
From 1 August, the Doctoral College, based in 10W level 3, will assume those responsibilities for doctoral students and programmes previously held by the Graduate Schools in the faculties and in the School of Management Postgraduate Research Office as well as for the University’s programme of doctoral skills provision. Details of the new teams, including contact information for all programme areas, is available from the Doctoral College.
Professor Mitchell brings a wealth of experience to her new role. She completed her BSc, PhD and post-doctoral research at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Blackwell Prize in 1997 for her PhD in tomographic imaging of the ionosphere – the region of the upper atmosphere bordering on space where the aurora is formed.
For the last 18 years, she has been at the University of Bath, having joined the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering as a lecturer in 1999. She was subsequently promoted to Reader in 2004 and Professor in 2008. During her academic career she has supervised 20 research students and in 2010 she received the University of Bath Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Prize.
Professor Mitchell said: "My own PhD included experimental fieldwork in northern Scandinavia, running a large radar system, theoretical development and computational analysis. I was incredibly lucky to have been given excellent training and opportunities during my PhD that provided the foundations to build my academic career.
"The new Doctoral College will provide support and training for all of the doctoral students at the University of Bath and will ensure that they have the skills and experience that they will need for the future. I am delighted to be appointed as the Academic Director of the Doctoral College.
"I look forward joining the Doctoral College staff and working together with the Associate Deans for Research and all academics across the University to enhance the reputation of the University of Bath as an international leader in graduate education."
Professor Mitchell will take up her new role on 1 September.