Professor Helen Scott

Professor Helen Scott joined the University of Stirling in November 2024 as Deputy Principal (Education).   

Professor Scott has held executive leadership positions in Sheffield Hallam University and Arden University.  

Prior to joining Stirling, Helen was Pro-Vice-Chancellor Learning, Teaching and Student Success at Sheffield Hallam with a broad remit for enhancing student experience and outcomes. Helen led Sheffield Hallam’s successful Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) submission, gaining the highest ‘Gold’ outcome. Focusing closely on improving student satisfaction, Helen also worked with students and different academic and professional services teams to get to the root causes of complex issues, producing effective solutions.

At Arden, Helen was Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, with institutional responsibility for designing and implementing several complex change projects, including simplifying the academic calendar, significantly enhancing student academic support, library and learning resources, student induction and the quality of learning, teaching and assessment.  

With a background in teacher education and fine art, Helen has built and contributed to an extensive network of HE practitioners in digital pedagogy and leadership. In particular, she has supported women to gain promotion and recognition for their achievements through mentoring, coaching and advocacy.

Her research and scholarly work includes initial teacher education identity formation and digital pedagogy. She has also collaborated with universities internationally on research into teacher professional development.  

Responsibilities

As Deputy Principal (Education), Professor Scott’s responsibility is to enhance student outcomes by considering the different factors that enable student success in Stirling’s context. This involves close and effective collaboration with student representatives and all teams across the University. 

Alongside the Deputy Principal (Student Experience), she leads the Education and Student Experience Strategy which sets the future direction for the University of Stirling’s portfolio and ensures excellence in learning and teaching for our students, preparing them for future success, whatever their ambitions.