Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience)
Emma Mayhew is a Professor of Pedagogy and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience) at Royal Holloway, University of London. She co-ordinates and supports the work of the existing leadership teams in education and student experience across academic faculties and Professional Services. Emma is leading the development and collaborative delivery of RH2030s ambitions around education and student experience.
Since joining Royal Holloway, Emma has led on strategic initiatives including portfolio review and a new curriculum design framework, as well as multiple strands of work to improve student experience. The impact of this work has been clear in a strong year-on-year improvement in the 2026 National Student Survey.
Emma previously held a series of senior education leadership roles at the University of Surrey between 2020 and 2025, including Associate Dean (Education) for the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences and interim Pro‑Vice‑Chancellor (Education and Student Experience) from September 2023 to June 2024. As Associate Dean (Education), she oversaw all aspects of learning and teaching provision across nine disciplinary areas within a faculty of around 8,000 students, and was responsible for shaping, implementing and measuring the success of major Faculty and University strategic initiatives.
Emma has also worked as an Associate for Advance HE, delivering leadership, change and project management programmes within the sector. She is a Principal Fellow of the HEA (2018) and a National Teaching Fellow (2020).
