Vice Principal International
Professor James Smith stepped down from his position at the end of August 2024.
James has made a significant contribution over the last ten years to the strategic global leadership of the University. The University has benefited from his initiative in securing scholarships, developing new equitable educational opportunities, enhancing research collaboration, supporting international students and staff, and championing the significance of global partnerships across the University and beyond.
Under James’ leadership notable successes include the development and launch of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme in 2016. Since then, 240 of the very best scholars from 26 African countries have been educated in Edinburgh on full scholarships and have enriched our community. Our partnership with the Mastercard Foundation was successfully renewed and expanded in 2023 and will continue for a further seven years.
James also spearheaded our membership of the Una Europa alliance in 2019; the first Scottish university to join a European Alliance. Una Europa offers our staff and students innovative research and teaching collaborations, mobility and international experiences with ten of Europe’s leading research universities. Through Una Europa, and renewed partnership with other leading European institutions, the University sought to mitigate the impacts of Brexit and build long-lasting and impactful partnerships with our European counterparts. James has also been instrumental in many of our other alliances, including the League of European Research Universities (LERU) and Universitas 21, as two examples from many.
The University’s international community of staff and students has grown significantly in the last ten years and James has been a vocal advocate for our global University community, from undergraduate students to displaced academics, whether on campus or overseas. James has always taken a compassionate and values-led approach to his work. In response to the global refugee crisis, we became a University of Sanctuary in 2017, partnered with Cara (the Council for At-Risk Academics) in 2018, providing enhanced support for displaced academics, and we launched our scholarship for displaced students in 2024 as part of our Education Beyond Borders programme.
Over the next semester, the Provost will undertake a short informal review of our approach to international, working with the Principal, members of the Senior Leadership Team, Edinburgh Global, and other key stakeholders, including Regional and College International Deans, to help inform our future direction in internationalisation. The Principal and Provost will also be writing to our international partners highlighting our ongoing commitment to continuing to deliver on our jointly identified opportunities and initiatives for each partnership during this interim period.
We are grateful to James for his considerable contributions to the University over the last decade, and wish him a well-deserved and productive research sabbatical.