Manchester Metropolitan appoints new Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Professor Steve Rothberg has been appointed as Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Professor Rothberg moves from Loughborough University, with a firm commitment to ensuring Manchester Metropolitan applies its new long-term strategy to shape the success of its students, staff and wider communities.

The Manchester-born Professor of Mechanical Engineering has held several senior leadership positions at Loughborough, driving exceptional performance in research and education, including leading an innovative strategy which marked the university out as one of the sector’s highest climbers in REF21.

As well as heading the newly formed Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, he led Loughborough’s team on the £40m project to create the Manufacturing Technology Centre, now part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

He brings Manchester Metropolitan extensive experience of engaging with external partners to open transformative opportunities for students and the wider university, with career highlights including attracting investment for Loughborough Science and Enterprise Park.

Senior higher education sector roles include a place on the Manufacturing Technology Centre Board of Directors, JISC Research Strategy Forum, the EPSRC Capital Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Team, and as a national Panel Chair for Athena Swan and as Chair of the PVCs’ Executive Management Group of Midlands Innovation (the strategic partnership between the Midlands 8 research-intensive universities).

With a first degree and a PhD from Southampton University, Professor Rothberg joined Loughborough in 1990 as lecturer in mechanical engineering. His research in noise and vibration has attracted individual awards from the National Physical Laboratory and the Society of Experimental Mechanics and contributed to Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Optical Engineering and High Value Manufacturing.

His innovations in teaching generated the award of a major HEFCE Teaching and Learning Technology Programme project and led to the creation of Loughborough’s Engineering Teaching and Learning Support Centre which gained HEFCE Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) status.

Professor Rothberg said: “As Manchester Metropolitan sets out its new long-term strategy, I feel privileged to assume leadership of a talented academic team and to take a key role in enhancing its standing nationally and internationally.

“Universities are crucial to driving social, cultural and economic prosperity, working in partnership with public, private and third sector organisations with which they share values. I have personal experience of the transformative power of higher education and have also witnessed how that power can benefit the wider world.

“From the ‘First Generation’ programme to degree apprenticeships, to its work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Manchester Metropolitan has a strong commitment to harnessing its research and teaching to help its communities to thrive. I look forward to ensuring its new strategy continues to deliver against that commitment.”