Andrea Bolshaw is a very experienced Higher Education leader. She has worked in HE for 27 years, spanning 5 diverse universities: Russell Group; Post-92s (with extensive international work); and smaller/specialist institutions. In her most recent role, she was part of the University Executive as Secretary & Registrar and Clerk to the Governing Body. Prior to this she was an Academic Registrar and also worked at progressive levels of responsibility across a range of university business areas (including medical schools, quality assurance and registry)

Andrea has a significant depth and breadth of expertise and a proven track record of providing trusted advice and guidance. An example list of areas that she has been involved in is provided below and the recommendations on her LinkedIn profile evidence the extent of Andrea’s impact.

She has been a Chartered Manager for 13 years and a Fellow of the AUA for 11 years. She has an MBA with distinction and completed the Advance HE’s Top Management Programme in 2022. She has led conference sessions, workshops and blogs for the AUA and sat on a number of panels at national HE sector events. She sits on a number of boards (including the Advance HE Leadership and Management Strategic Advisory Group) and has held additional roles during her career advising the OIA (as a member of the HE Advisory Panel) and mentoring and then examining on AUA’s PG Certificate in Professional Practice (HE Admin and Management).

Throughout her career, she has benefitted from the opportunity to work with a diverse range of multi-disciplinary teams and stakeholders with various approaches and personal styles. She builds positive working relations with the appropriate influence in order to achieve operational and strategic objectives. She has worked with vice-chancellors, pro-vice-chancellors, deans, solicitors, academics, students, NUS representatives, trades union representatives, government and agency representatives, law enforcement officers, professional body representatives, clinicians, NHS CEOs and Health Authority executives, university registrars, as well as financial, technical and IT professionals. She has also worked in an ambassadorial capacity with VIPs, business and religious leaders.

Example list of areas that Andrea has been involved in:

  • Quality Assurance, including DAPs (previously the QAA institutional contact)
  • OfS Registration and Regulatory compliance (including reportable events)
  • Professional body matters (worked at two medical schools)
  • Planning
  • Collaborative Provision (including chairing validation and approval panels in both the UK and extensively overseas)
  • Student and staff disciplinary (including board of governor level appeals, final stage grievances and employment tribunal court appearances)
  • Dealing with Human Resource procedures as a senior executive officer (NDAs, contracts etc)
  • Health & Safety
  • Sponsorship Licence (T4 and T2) licence revocation (Home Office Authorising Officer)
  • Internal Audit
  • Change management restructuring processes (including large-scale strategic and cultural transformations)
  • SU Union understanding, liaison, governance and education act compliance
  • Regulatory interpretations, changes and new developments
  • Developing a new University’s Strategic Framework with underpinning KPIs and Risk Register
  • Risk Management Process implementation and ongoing management
  • Business Continuity and Incident/Disaster Response and Recovery
  • Managing critical incidents and reputations management that occur within the University community involving high-stake issues
  • University Complaints (including Whistleblowing) and OIA interactions (including high stake circumstances involving fitness to study/practice matters)
  • Information Governance (including Data Protection and FoI)
  • Clearing and student admissions
  • Safeguarding (including Prevent (including Prevent statutory returns)).
  • Managing pivotal relationships e.g. between Council, Senate and the University Executive
  • Academic governance (including committee structure reviews and implementation) and Governance effectiveness Reviews
  • Developing the University’s governance capability – elevating its maturity from pre-University approaches (including refreshing recruitment, running strategy days, developing and designing induction programmes)
  • Re-drafting and modernising the University’s Articles of Governance (including university name change).
  • Implementing and developing a scheme of delegation to cover the entire organisations decision-making approaches
  • Vice-chancellor recruitment and selection (twice) and other high-profile board-level appointments (pvc, chancellor and chair of council)

Legal status Sole trader

VAT registered No

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/andreabolshaw/

Email Andrea.bolshaw@live.com

Phone 07736678027

Twitter @BolshawAndrea