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Professor Dame Nicola Dandridge DBE

Governor

A head shot of Nicola Dandridge, a white woman with dark wavy hair, smiling at the camera.

Biography

Nicola is professor of practice in higher education policy at the University of Bristol. Until 2022, she was chief executive of the Office for Students, the regulator for higher education. Before that she led Universities UK, the representative body for the UK’s universities, and first joined the higher education sector in 2006 as chief executive of the Equality Challenge Unit, established to promote equality and diversity for staff and students in the higher education sector. Nicola originally qualified as a solicitor in both England and Scotland, specialising in industrial relations and equality law. She is a trustee of Cara, the Council for At Risk Academics, and a member of the board of the University of Glasgow. She was made a Dame in 2023 for services to higher education.