University leader in running for the ‘digital double’

A Staffordshire University leader is hoping for the ‘digital double’ when the winners of two prestigious awards are announced this month.

Staffordshire University’s Andrew Proctor was named among a list of champions of digital transformation across the UK back in June when the DL100 published their list of finalists which has since been put to public vote.

Andrew has held the post of Pro-Vice Chancellor (Digital) since 2019 and is the driver of Staffordshire University’s ambition to be the foremost digital institution. He is one of just four leaders working in academia to be included in the independent list and the only higher education representative to be shortlisted in the ‘Digital Leader’ category.

Digital Leaders is a nationwide programme for promoting effective, long-term digital transformation and the most hotly contested category each year is the Digital Leader of the Year Category which includes Andrew.

He said: “It’s an honour to part of the DL100 club and this is fantastic recognition of everything our University is doing to be at the forefront of digital. In the last year we have launched Staffordshire University London, our Digital Institute, which specialises in tech courses like Esports and Cybercrime.

“Prior to that we launched a new chatbot for students which is available 24/7 to help with all aspects of their university life. At Staffordshire we pride ourselves on our ability to innovate and being the first UK university to migrate all our systems to the cloud has certainly helped us to move quickly to online learning and remote working in response to the current pandemic.”

Winners are announced this week, on October 15, just six days before the Computing Digital Technology Leaders Awards where Andrew is a finalist for Chief Digital officer.

Andrew said: “I am doubly proud to be in the running for these awards and representing our Connected University and the wider higher education sector.

"The awards are a fantastic opportunity for professional networking that make me reflect, spark new ideas or thinking and generally make me feel fortunate to be amongst such talent in an exciting industry.”

Notes to editors:

Digital Leaders is a community of 120,000 senior leaders who are involved in leveraging technology to promote economic growth, increase social well-being and narrow social gaps.The DL100 list is created from nominations submitted by members before being shortlisted by the DL100 judges. This year’s list is the 8th cohort to join the alumni of previous winners that now numbers over 500 leaders from Government, Enterprise, startups and charities. Winners are announced on October 15.

The Computing Digital Technology Leaders Awards exist to recognise the achievements of the individuals and companies who are really making it happen at the coal face of the digital technology stack: from website design and coding to UX and project management, from scrum masters and product managers, all the way up to the CDO. The winners are announced in a virtual ceremony on October 21.

Maria Scrivens

Communications Manager

t: 01782 294375

m: 07766 520339

e: m.c.scrivens@staffs.ac.uk

Staffordshire University is the Connected University; connected to the needs of students, academic partners, business and society. Our main city campus in Stoke-on-Trent features excellent learning and teaching facilities and good transport links. We have specialist Centres of Excellence in Healthcare Education at Stafford and Shrewsbury.  

We were recognised with a Gold award in the 2019 Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) for delivering consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for students.  

We have been shortlisted for University of the Year at the THE Awards 2020 and were named ‘Midlands University of the Year’ at the Midlands Business Awards 2020. 
 
Staffordshire University has signed up to the Civic University Agreement, pledging to play a leading role in improving the regional economy and enhancing quality of life in local communities. We were recognised in the top 15 for social inclusion in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021. We aim to be a leading university for digital technologies building on our proud computing heritage and in 2019 launched Staffordshire University London’s Digital Institute which is committed to preparing students for careers in new and emerging tech industries. 

We are a Top 250 Young University (Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2020) and are connected globally, with more than 11,000 people are studying Staffordshire University degrees overseas.