Role and responsibilities

The Pro Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement is responsible for:

• building and maintaining the university’s international reputation in education, student experience, research, enterprise, innovation, and civic engagement
• developing and sustaining strategic partnerships and alliances in selected geographical hubs across the globe
• working with governments and government agencies, universities, higher education networks, businesses, charities, industry bodies and community organisations to build and enrich these global hubs
• strategic oversight of student recruitment and admissions, with a focus on diversifying our student community to improve access, participation and student success for underrepresented groups at home and abroad
• academic leadership of other aspects of the University's external relations activity, including marketing, communications, alumni relations and philanthropy.

Post holder

Professor Michele Acuto (he/him) will join the University as Pro Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement in June 2024.  

Professor Michele Acuto's biography

Professor Acuto joined the University of Melbourne in 2018, following positions at University College London and University of Oxford, having been educated in Australia and Singapore.  He has an extensive university leadership track record alongside significant diplomatic experience outside academia on urban development and global governance.

His research on the relation between cities and global challenges has received over $38 million in named research funding with an extensive publication record and regular partnership with UN agencies, local governments and the private and philanthropic sectors. He is an interdisciplinary urban studies scholar whose work crosses Social Sciences and Built Environment and Humanities, as well as Engineering. At Bristol, he will take up a role as Professor of Urban Resilience in the School of Geographical Sciences.