Professor Tom Ward joined Newcastle as Pro Vice-Chancellor Education in 2021. He is responsible for the educational strategy for the University and sees working in partnership with students as central to its success. He has a particular interest in how digital technology can support and enhance more traditional modes of educational experience.
He has held university leadership positions for education at the University of East Anglia, Durham, and Leeds before joining Newcastle. He served on advisory committees on student experience and widening participation for the Higher Education Funding Council for England and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is on the Boards of Newcastle University International Singapore Pte Ltd (NUIS), NuMed (Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia), and the INTO joint venture with Newcastle.
He is a mathematician specialising in ergodic theory, homogeneous dynamics, and number theory. He spent his childhood in Ghana and Zambia and went to school in Swaziland before studying mathematics at the University of Warwick