Membership of our Board of Governors

Who forms the University of Plymouth's Board of Governors?

Our Board of Governers is currently made up of 15 Governors. These include ten independent external governors. The Board also includes one professional services staff member, two elected representatives from the Senate, two student members nominated by the Students’ Union and the Vice-Chancellor ex officio.
Vacancies for independent external governors are advertised externally and on our web pages and are subject to a formal interview process managed through the Board's Nominations Committee.

Board Officers

Board Officers, including the Chair of the Board, the Vice-Chair and the Senior Independent Governor, are elected by the full Board from among the independent external governors. The Board has the authority, should it be unable to identify a Chair from among its membership, to seek to recruit an appropriate individual externally.
The current Chair is Professor Simon Gaskell, the Vice-Chair is Dr Ursula Ney and the Senior Independent Governor is Philip Nicol-Gent.
The Roles and responsibilities of Board Officers are as agreed by the Board.

Register of interests

Members of the Board and of Board committees provide the University with information about their and their families’ commercial and other interests and activities, as well as any other charities of which they are a trustee. This is updated annually and held by the University Secretary and Clerk to the Board.
The Register of Interests provides a mechanism to ensure that any conflicts of interest or loyalties are transparent and suitably accounted for in the decision-making process. Conflicts of interest are identified at the outset of each Board or committee meeting in relation to the items on the agenda for that meeting.