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Aston University appoints new pro-vice-chancellor and executive dean of business and social sciences

Jan 19, 2023

3 min


  • Professor Zoe Radnor has been appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the College of Business and Social Sciences
  • She has had a successful career in higher education for over 25 years
  • Professor Radnor will be joining Aston University in Spring 2023.


Aston University has appointed Professor Zoe Radnor as the new Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the College of Business and Social Sciences.


Professor Radnor will succeed Professor George Feiger, who will be standing down after 10 years of leadership of Aston Business School and the College of Business and Social Sciences.


With a successful career in higher education spanning over 25 years, Professor Radnor will be joining Aston University from The University of Law (ULaw), where she is currently Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, specifically focused on leading the diversification of the academic portfolio, including building an academic model for the provision of high quality, innovative teaching and thought leadership. In addition, she is leading the TEF submission at the institution


Prior to her executive role at ULaw, she was Vice-President for Strategy and Planning; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Service Operations Management at City, University of London, leading the development of the University EDI strategy.


In this role she also led the creation of the new enabling Civic Strategy and established the new institution-wide Change Support Unit. Before City, Professor Radnor was the founding Dean of the School of Business at the University of Leicester, and prior to that, as Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, she led the development of new curriculum offerings for the Loughborough University campus in London.


Professor Zoe Radnor is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the British Academy of Management (FBAM). She is also a member of the Athena Swan Governance Committee for Advance HE. Her main research interests are in performance, process improvement and service value within public sector organisations. She has led research projects for a number of Government and healthcare organisations, evaluating the use of ‘lean’ and associated techniques and continues to maintain a strong ongoing research profile.


Professor Aleks Subic, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Aston University, said:


“I am looking forward to welcoming Professor Radnor to the Executive Team at what is a hugely exciting period of development for the University and to working with her as we shape our Aston University 2030 Strategy. Zoe brings significant leadership experience to the team and ambition in line with our bold vision.


“I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the significant contribution made by Professor George Feiger during his leadership of Aston Business School and the College of Business and Social Sciences over the last 10 years.”


Professor Radnor said:


“I am delighted to be joining such a prestigious and forward-thinking University and College.


“The reputations of the College of Business and Social Sciences and of Aston University generally and the strategic vision of the new Vice-Chancellor and University leadership are what attracted me to this exciting role. I can’t wait to get started working with so many talented and innovative new colleagues.”


Professor Radnor will be taking up her post in Spring 2023.

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4 min

“Females are not autistic enough”: Aston University academic hosts talk on new book exploring female autism

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Even now, boys are ten times more likely to be referred for assessment for autism and twice as likely to be diagnosed than girls, even when they have exactly the same traits. 80% of autistic females have received multiple wrong diagnoses, including borderline personality disorder, social anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But why? The reason is the unchallenged belief that ‘autism is a “boy” thing’ causing a male spotlight problem in all aspects of the autism story. It could also be that females with autism express the condition differently. Professor Rippon said: “This took me back to [my previous book] The Gendered Brain when I was looking at the very clear view of what males should be like and what females should be like. If you look at the autistic population you have this clear idea that males are like this, but females, er, not so much? 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There’s what I call the ‘born to be mild’ effect, where little girls are trained to socialise more, to behave, not to make a fuss, if you feel uncomfortable, don’t tell anyone else about it. There’s a lovely comment from one late-diagnosed female who rues the fact that she was so well behaved and wishes that she had just burned more cars so that someone would have spotted her carefully camouflaged distress!” The final slide in the presentation covered what Professor Rippon called “an ironic footnote”. While Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger are described as the fathers of autism, writing in the 1940s, it was in fact a Soviet female psychiatrist, Grunya Sukhareva, writing in the 1920s, who first described autism, even clearly examining the differences in the condition between boys and girls. Why her research was ignored for so long is unclear, but the male spotlight problem may well have been avoided. For more information about The Lost Girls of Autism, visit https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/gina-rippon/the-lost-girls-of-autism/9781035011629.

4 min

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The project is being led by researchers from the University of Plymouth, working with colleagues at the University of Exeter, Aston University, University of Aberdeen and the North East London Foundation NHS Trust. It is funded by through a Programme Development Grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The project team comprises experts in the care of older people – including healthcare researchers, nurses, consultants, GPs, pharmacists and psychiatrists working across the UK – as well as medical statisticians and health economists. It also involves an advisory group of patients with lived experience of receiving repeat prescriptions for pain medication. During the project, the team will speak to patients aged 65 and over with a history of chronic pain for which they are taking, or have taken, medication and families who cared for and supported relatives with chronic pain. They will also speak to healthcare professionals who are either prescribing or supporting older adults taking medication for chronic pain management. Alongside this work, the team will analyse anonymised healthcare data to understand more about older adults who are prescribed medication for chronic pain. This includes patterns in prescribing, health and demographic factors associated with pain medication use, and potential health outcomes, and will help identify those likely to benefit most from support. Professor Maidment, from Aston Pharmacy School, will bring his expertise in pharmacy, medication use in day-to-day clinical practice and working with diverse groups of patients to support medication optimisation. He said: “From my experience in community pharmacy, the use of pain medicines is very common in older people. We need to work with older people to understand how we can help older people to use other potentially safer approaches.” Patricia Schofield, professor of clinical nursing at the University of Plymouth and one of the study’s chief investigators, said: “Very often, older people are told by a doctor that the most effective means of treating a health condition is through some form of pain relief. But they often don’t get any form of follow-up appointment and, as a generation, are less likely to seek one as they either feel pain is part of the ageing process or they don’t wish to be seen as a burden. The result is that they end up getting repeat prescriptions, potentially for pain medications they no longer need and also at significant cost to the NHS. “This study will give us a clearer understanding of the scale of the issue which we can use to develop ways of benefitting patients and their families, and the healthcare professionals working to treat and support them.” Victoria Abbott-Fleming MBE, founder of the charity Burning Nights CRPS Support, is the chair of the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement group for the HOPE-AO study. It will be made up of several adults over the age of 65 who live with chronic pain and have received repeat prescriptions for pain medication. Victoria has herself lived for more than 20 years with a chronic pain condition, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), and set up Burning Nights to support those affected by it on a day-to-day basis and their families. She is also chair of the Expert Patient and Carer Committee at the British Pain Society. She said: “I’m excited to support this study that places the voices of older adults and their carers at the heart of pain management. All too often, those living with chronic pain – especially older adults – are prescribed medication without regular review or consideration of alternative approaches. This study is a vital step towards more informed and balanced care, helping ensure that older people living with chronic pain are not just treated, but truly heard and supported.”

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