The University of Buckingham appoints Professor Lynette Ryals OBE as Vice-Chancellor

The University of Buckingham has today (Wednesday 1 July) announced that Professor Lynette Ryals OBE will become its next Vice-Chancellor when she joins the University in the autumn.

Professor Ryals joins The University of Buckingham from Cranfield University, where she currently serves as Deputy-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Business and Management and member of the University Executive. A highly respected leader in higher education, she brings extensive experience in academic leadership and institutional development.

Throughout her distinguished career, Professor Ryals has demonstrated a strong commitment to educational excellence, student success, and the development of new approaches to higher education. Across various roles at Cranfield University and MK:U, she established and led a distinctive undergraduate education offering in Milton Keynes, helping to create new pathways for students and strengthen connections between higher education and employers to support regional growth.

Professor Ryals will lead the University’s future strategy in its historic 50th anniversary year. She will build on Buckingham’s reputation for academic quality, personalised teaching and student-centred education by working closely with staff, students, alumni, and partners to strengthen the University’s impact, expand opportunities for students and reinforce Buckingham’s position as one of the UK’s most distinctive universities.

Her appointment marks another significant milestone for the institution, as she becomes Buckingham’s first female Vice-Chancellor.

Speaking on her appointment, Professor Ryals said:

“It is a great honour to be invited to lead such a unique and distinctive institution. I am excited about the opportunities for The University of Buckingham and am delighted to become part of it.

The University’s location in a vibrant town close to the centre of the Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor means that it can play a pivotal role in supporting growth and skills across the region. The staff, the students and the campus environment at The University of Buckingham are truly impressive.

Together, we will build on the University’s proud heritage of education innovation and excellent student experience, augmenting those strengths with the possibilities offered by new technologies in learning and teaching to forge an international reputation for an exceptional higher education experience and outstanding student outcomes.”

Commenting on the appointment, Chair of Council, Mark St John Qualter said:

“I am delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Lynette Ryals OBE as Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham.

Professor Ryals brings a wealth of experience from across higher education, combining outstanding academic credentials with a proven track record of leadership, innovation and partnership. Her vision, energy and commitment to excellence make her exceptionally well placed to lead the University into its next phase of development.

As we mark fifty years, the questions facing higher education are sharper than they have ever been: how it is funded, how its value is demonstrated, and how it keeps pace with a world being reshaped by AI. Buckingham has never relied on doing things the way everyone else does, and that distinctiveness, paired with a genuine focus on students, is what has carried us this far. Professor Ryals understands this inheritance deeply and is genuinely committed to it: she sees our heritage not as something to preserve under glass, but as the foundation to build on. In her we have the right leader to take us into the next chapter, and I am confident it will be one of our strongest yet.

I want to pay particular tribute to David Cole, whose leadership as Interim Vice-Chancellor has steadied and strengthened the University at a pivotal moment. He has steered us with calm, care and real purpose, and Professor Ryals inherits an institution in better shape for it. My thanks also go to everyone involved in the recruitment process.

I know the entire Buckingham community will join me in warmly welcoming Professor Ryals to the University.”

Professor Ryals is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of both the Society of Investment Professionals and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. Over a 29-year academic career at Cranfield University, Lynette has held a series of senior roles, including as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and CEO for MK:U, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, and as Director of Cranfield School of Management between 2017-2019. Before that, Lynette was the UK’s first Professor of Sales at Cranfield.

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