University Leadership

Professor Shearer West

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham

Professor Shearer West is the seventh Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Nottingham, taking up office on 2 October 2017.

Professor West is a Professor of Art History and has held a number of significant leadership roles in universities and higher education. She obtained her B.A. degree in Art History and English at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and her Ph.D. in Art History at St. Andrews.

Find out more about Professor Shearer West's career and the role of the Vice-Chancellor.

Xu Yafen

Chair of UNNC Board and Chair of Zhejiang Wanli University 

Xu Yafen became a party member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1981 and is a representative of the eleventh CPC Congress of Zhejiang Province and a member of Zhejiang CPPCC Committee. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Dundee and is a visiting professor of Tsinghua University, as well as a research fellow of the Human Science Institute of Management Science Academy of China. 

Wanli Education Group, which she founded, has a national reputation for academic excellence and Xu has made a considerable contributions to educational reform in China. She has published many papers on psychology, behavior science, management, education and other fields in national and provincial academic journals and other publications.

Ying Xiong 

Party Secretary of UNNC

Ying Xiong is a researcher and a member of the Zhejiang Provincial Political Consultative Conference. He is currently the Party Secretary and the Executive Director of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He is also the Chairman and Party Secretary of Zhejiang Wanli Education Group. He has successively won the title of outstanding party member of Ningbo City and Zhejiang provincial labor model.

As an educator, he has been researching the internal rules and development trends of higher education for many years, and he has achieved many research results. He won the second prize of the National Education Achievement Award and the first prize of the Zhejiang Education Achievement Award. He has published a monograph and many academic papers in core journals.

Professor Nick Miles OBE

Provost and Pro-Vice Chancellor

Nick Miles is undertaking his second term as Provost of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Between 2015 and 2019 he was Pro-Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement responsible for the University of Nottingham’s global engagement strategy and for the University’s advancement portfolio in promoting philanthropy and alumni development.

Prior to this, Nick was the Provost of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) between 2010 and 2015 and led the University through a period of substantive growth from 2,000 to 6,500 students and 300 to 800 staff achieving a turnover in excess of £50 million. He received the Camilla Award from the City of Ningbo (2013) in recognition of developing international education, the Zhejiang Province West Lake Friendship award (2014) and an OBE for services to UK/China educational interests in Her Majesty The Queen’s 2013 Birthday Honours list.

Professor Miles is a mineral processing engineer with research experience in particle processing, waste minimisation and recycling, mineral processing and coal preparation. He has an extensive research portfolio (over 40 PhD supervisions) supported through UK Research Councils, European, UK government, Zhejiang Provincial Government, Ningbo Municipal Government and industry funding and a strong record of inter-disciplinary research with colleagues in the physical sciences, including Chemistry and Physics. He has been a member of assessment panels for EPSRC (chair and panel member), NERC, Defra, DTI, ECSC and EU; and has over 120 publications.

Professor Shen Weiqi

Vice-Provost for External Relations

Professor Shen Weiqi serves as an expert on Sino-foreign education evaluation at the Chinese Ministry of Education, is a member of the sixth board of the National Review Committee on Setting up Higher Education Institutions, and a member of the Commission on Chinese-foreign Cooperation in Education (CEAIE). 

He has published more than 50 papers in national and international academic journals - his primary research areas are plant nutrition and flowering physiology.

Professor Shen has been honoured for the quality of both his teaching and research by municipal and provincial authorities. 

Professor Philip Seltsikas

Vice-Provost for Education and Student Experience

Professor Philip Seltsikas is the Vice-Provost for Education and Student Experience. He is an internationally recognised tertiary education professional with more than 30 years’ experience working in academia and industry, and with extensive leadership experience across a broad range of portfolio areas.

Prior to joining the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) he served as Pro Vice-Chancellor Student Engagement and Success at Charles Darwin University in Australia. There he had a wide-ranging remit that included four university directorates and overall accountability for a broad education portfolio including student services, student experience, and student administration; delivering quality education to 24,000 students in a multi-campus environment. From 2007-2018, Professor Seltsikas held several executive leadership positions at the University of Sydney (Australia), managing strategic programmes and departments at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He was responsible for leading and developing the University’s Global Industry Placement Programme, providing career opportunities to students and creating a network of industry partnerships with hundreds of corporate partners from around the world.

In the United Kingdom, Professor Seltsikas served at several universities where he managed large multinational projects to engage in research and development involving businesses and government. To support these projects Professor Seltsikas attracted in excess of RMB 83 million in competitive research funding. His research has spanned a number of business and government technology domains – process management, application service provision, digital identity management, and cybersecurity.

Professor Patrick Y.K. Chau

Vice Provost for Research and Knowledge Exchange

Professor Patrick Y.K. Chau joined the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) as Vice Provost in Research and Li Dak Sum Chair in Information Systems and Operations Management in March 2019. He was appointed as Vice Provost for Research and Knowledge Exchange in June 2020.

Prior to joining UNNC, he has served at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) for almost twenty years during which he has held various management positions including Director of the School of Business and Associate Dean at the Faculty of Business and Economics.  In the academic community, he was the Founding President of both the College for Academic Leadership, Association for Information Systems (AIS) in 2015-2017 and the Hong Kong Chapter of AIS in 2006.  He was also President of the Chinese Association for Information Systems (ChAIS) in 2005-2007.  He served on the Council of AIS twice, once as a Council Member representing the Asia-Pacific Region (2000-2003) and the other time as Vice-President for Meetings and Conferences in 2006-2008.

Professor Chau’s academic achievements and contributions have been recognized by a number of appointments and award, including Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professorship by the Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China in March 2010, Padma and Hari Harilela Professorship in Strategic Information Management at The University of Hong Kong in February 2014, Qiushi Chair Professorship at Zhejiang University, China in September 2014, and Li Dak Sum Chair Professorship at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China in September 2017. He also received the AIS Fellow Award in December 2013, an award by the Association for Information Systems (AIS) to no more than six scholars in the discipline of Information Systems each year globally. He was also invited and is now serving on the International Advisory Board of the Consumer and Organisational Data Analytics (CODA) Research Centre of King’s College London (KCL) in the U.K., the FinTech and Digital Governance Research Centre of the Chung Cheng University in Taiwan, and the Faculty of Management and Economics of the Dalian University of Technology, China.

Dr Hongbo (Jenny) Dong

Deputy Party Secretary 

Hongbo (Jenny) Dong was previously Dean of Innovation Entrepreneur College, Zhejiang Wanli Unveristy (ZWU), Party Secretary of Ningbo Mechanical Industry School, and the branch secretary of the Party in ZWU.  

She obtained an Ed.D (doctorate in education) degree in Durham University, UK, in 2014. The focus of her doctoral project was to explore the Chinese staff’s intercultural experiences with their culturally different colleagues at UNNC.

After completing the Ed.D, she opened two courses (Intercultural Communication and Intercultural Ability Training) for the international students in ZWU and Chinese students in Innovation College respectively.

She is familiar with the educational systems and practices in higher institutions in both China and UK, and specialized in Party and Student affairs. Meanwhile, she has received several honorary titles in municipal and provincial levels, and has published many articles in the Chinese media on topics of education and student management.

Professor Tao Wu

Vice Provost for China Beacons Institute, Dean of Faculty of Science and Engineering

Professor Tao Wu is currently the Vice Provost for China Beacons Institute and the Dean of Faculty of Science and Engineering (FoSE). Prior to taking up current position, he was the Head of Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Associate Dean for Research and Director of Health, Safety and Estate Matters of the FoSE. Professor Wu received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham UK. He joined the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) in 2007 as a lecturer. He was promoted to an Associate Professor in 2010, an Associate Professor and Reader in 2013, and then a full Professor in 2015.

Professor Tao Wu has over 20 years of R&D experience on the efficient conversion and utilization of fossil fuels/biomass and the development of novel materials for environmental applications. His research programmes cover a wide range from blue-sky research to proof of concept and patent development leading to commercialisation. To date, Professor Wu has completed over 40 research projects funded by various funding bodies and has developed technologies that benefit the society through commercialisation.

As an active researcher, Professor Wu also serves as a committee member on a number of national and regional professional bodies. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, is currently leading the Municipal Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Conversion Technologies at UNNC and holds the Director position of University’s New Materials Institute (NMI).

Professor Kok Wei Khong

Dean of Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS China) 

Professor Khong is the Dean of Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) China and a Professor of Marketing Analytics. Before joining NUBS China, Khong was the Executive Dean of one of the top private universities in Southeast Asia. During his four years tenure, he led an unranked business school to the top 100 in the world in the QS World University Rankings by Subject in Business and Management Studies.

Prior to this, Khong was the Associate Dean (Research and Knowledge Exchange) of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and set up the Centre for Interdisciplinary Data Analytics which focuses on business analytics, digital economy and AI technologies. He has more than 20 years of working in academia and conducting research in services marketing, marketing analytics, behavioural science, and text analytics. He has received more than RMB 1.5 million in competitive funding from various funding bodies such as the Malaysia Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Funding, the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education Translational Research Grant Scheme, etc.

Khong has served as a consultant focusing on service quality in one of the largest direct-selling companies in Malaysia. He was also involved in the Radio Audience Measurement project working with one of the leading global market insights and data analytics companies deriving the population proportionate to size stratified sampling. He led a team of researchers at NUBS, working with the capital market learning and development solutions provider of the securities commission, to study the trust of the financial services on the capital markets service providers in Malaysia. 

Dr Celia Lam

Interim Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr Celia Lam is Interim Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Associate Professor in media and cultural studies. Prior to joining UNNC in 2016, she worked in the Australian media industry while obtaining her PhD from the University of Sydney. In 2012 she was awarded an Endeavour Award Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Australian Government to undertake research in online identity presentation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr Lam's research focuses on the cultural and aesthetic impact of digital technologies on media production and consumption. Her work has been published in journals such as Continuum, Convergence, and Wiley’s International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication. She has published several books with Routledge and University of Iowa Press. She is on the executive board of the Fame and Persona Research Consortium, is editorial board member of Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, and digital editor of Celebrity Studies Journal. 

Professor Alain Chong

Dean of Graduate School and Global Engagement

Professor Alain Chong is the Dean of Graduate School and a Professor of Information Systems at Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS). Prior to joining NUBS, he worked as a software engineer, postdoctoral fellow, and Associate Professor in Computer Science in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. His research interests include technology-driven disruptions such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, and live-streaming, as well as design and adoption issues related to e-commerce, mobile commerce, and SCM systems.

Professor Chong has received numerous awards and recognitions for his contributions to the field of Information Systems. He was a recipient of the 2012 Ten Outstanding Young Malaysian Award conferred by Junior Chamber International and the Ningbo Camellia Award in 2020 for his contributions to Ningbo city. He has also been named as one of the Most Cited Chinese Researchers for seven consecutive years from 2015 to 2022 by Elsevier Scopus database, and was elected as one of the "World's Top 2% Scientists" released by Stanford University in 2022. He is among the top 50 Information Systems scientists globally in the career-long database and the only two scientists from China to be included. He is also a recipient of the Ningbo 3315 Individual Talent Scheme and the 2022 NSFC International Excellent Young Scientists. Additionally, he has held visiting research positions at Nanyang Technological University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Greenwich University, and is an Adjunct Professor of Monash University, Taylor's University Malaysia, Honorary Professor of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), and Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics.

James Birkett

Registrar

James joined the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) in February 2023 as the University’s Registrar. James is the University’s principal student administrative services officer with responsibility for providing strategic leadership and management across the University’s student support services, driving the University’s commitment to delivering outstanding academic support services to staff and students.

James has over 20 years’ experience across university student and research administration, planning and governance, communications and organizational change. He has worked at four universities, and joined UNNC from City, University of London where he was latterly the Academic Registrar. Here he had responsibility for leading a large team comprising a range of registry functions, from applicant to graduate, and student services supporting 20,000 students. He was previously the Head of Student Administration at the University of Surrey.  

Thomas Murphy

Chief Financial and Planning Officer

Tom took on the role of Chief Financial and Planning Officer at UNNC in February 2020. In addition to having responsibility for the University’s finances, Tom’s portfolio also includes management and oversight of Human Resources, IT Services, Estates, Procurement, Library, Sports, Business Development, Strategy and Planning Team, Centre for English Language Education and Development and Alumni Relations. Tom is a Chartered Management Accountant and has worked for a number of organisations in both the private and public sectors in the UK in a mix of Finance, HR and Commercial roles.

Prior to joining UNNC, Tom spent eight years working for Deloitte in both London and Shanghai. His main focus at Deloitte was in Finance Transformation where he led projects to resolve a wide range of problems that organisations were facing with their Finance Function. During his time at Deloitte Tom was heavily involved in the development of digital finance techniques and the future of finance. He worked for clients from a wide range of industries including central and local government, retail, luxury brands and telecommunications.

Phoebe Lou

Executive Director of Marketing and Communications

Phoebe Lou joined the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) as Executive Director of Marketing and Communication in Jan 2021. Before joining UNNC, Phoebe was the Brand Director in Retail BP China and has more than 15-year solid experience in marketing and communications. Phoebe will assume direct leadership of the communications, recruitment and marketing teams at UNNC and manage a creative, effective, agile, data-informed organization that delivers field and digital marketing campaigns both domestically and internationally.