Professor Sally Mapstone DBE FRSE

Professor Dame Sally Mapstone DBE FRSE

Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of St Andrews

Honorary Fellow; Alumna of St Cross
 

Biography

Dame Sally Mapstone is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews.

Professor Mapstone is a member of the board of Universities UK, Vice-Convener of Universities Scotland, a member of the Higher Education Policy Institute advisory board, a member of the board of UCAS, and Vice-Chair of the board of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

Before taking up the role of Principal of the University of St Andrews in 2016 her academic career was spent at the University of Oxford, where she read English Language and Literature, gained her doctorate on Older Scots literature, and became Professor of Older Scots Literature in the Faculty of English Language and Literature. She served as Junior Proctor (2006-7); Chair of the English Faculty Board, (2007-10); Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Personnel and Equality (2009-11), and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education (2011-6). Earlier in her career she worked as an editor in the book publishing industry. She is an Emeritus Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and St Cross College, Oxford. She maintains a strong interest in issues of equality and access.

Her research deals with literature in Scots and in Latin before 1707, with political literature, and with book history. She is Honorary President of the Scottish Text Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, and President of the Saltire Society. In 2019 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Professor Mapstone has a long-standing engagement in international issues. She is chair of the international advisory board for the University of Helsinki. In 2017 she received the Foreign Policy Association of America medal for services to higher education, and is an Honorary Fellow of the FPA.