SOAS Provost Joanna Newman to step down
SOAS University of London has announced that Professor Joanna Newman, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), will be stepping down from her role to become Vice-Chancellor of Goldsmiths, University of London.
Professor Newman’s departure marks a significant moment for SOAS, where she leaves a lasting legacy in the academic direction and performance of the university. While her appointment to Goldsmiths is a notable and well-deserved recognition of her leadership, she will be greatly missed across the SOAS community.
As Provost, Joanna has led our academic strategy, protecting the distinctive character of SOAS, and supported financial and operational planning to support the long-term sustainability of the university. Her leadership has been central to a number of major developments, including the introduction of a semesterised academic structure, strengthening academic governance, and establishing a more coordinated institutional approach to improving student continuation, outcomes and satisfaction.
She has also led the development of a more strategic approach to online and transnational education, alongside advancing SOAS’s work on equity and inclusion, including targeted efforts to reduce attainment gaps and improve outcomes for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
More recently, her leadership of the Rankings Taskforce has begun to deliver a marked and positive shift in how SOAS is perceived by international rankings bodies such as QS and, importantly, by prospective students.
Beyond these achievements, Professor Newman is widely recognised for her collaborative and inclusive approach. Despite the demands of her role, she has built strong personal relationships across the institution, working in a spirit of partnership and drawing on the expertise of colleagues to foster a more connected, cross-team culture and a shared “one institution” approach.
Professor Adam Habib, Vice-Chancellor of SOAS, said: “Joanna has made a deep and lasting contribution to SOAS. She has strengthened our academic foundations and helped position the university for the future. Just as importantly, she has worked in a way that has brought colleagues together across the institution, building partnerships and encouraging collaboration. That is something we value highly and should seek to sustain. Her new role is so very well deserved and I wish her every success in it.”
Reflecting on her time at SOAS, Professor Newman said: “I have felt very warmly welcomed and fully part of the SOAS community. I will take that spirit with me to a sister institution, Goldsmiths, which in many ways shares a similar ethos. A personal highlight of my time at SOAS was my inaugural lecture, which felt like bringing my academic identity home to the institution, but my abiding memories will be of working with so many talented colleagues to create fantastic opportunities for our students. I will miss SOAS very much and I am so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to make a difference in this role.”
Professor Elisa Van Waeyenberge, currently Dean of the College of Social Sciences, will take on the role of Interim Provost from September.
