Rama Thirunamachandran is the academic lead and chief executive of Canterbury Christ Church University. He joined the University in October 2013, following five years as deputy vice-chancellor and provost of Keele University with overall responsibility for Keele’s academic activities. At Keele he was also responsible for its strategic and operational leadership for academic planning, budgeting, and delivery of teaching, research and enterprise, with specific responsibility for leading the University’s Internationalization Strategy.
From 2002, Rama Thirunamachandran was director for research, innovation and skills at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with overall responsibility for the strategic direction of HEFCE’s research, knowledge transfer, and employer engagement and skills policies, with an annual budgetary responsibility of £1.5 billion. His responsibilities included oversight of the operation of the Research Assessment Exercise and the development of the Research Excellence Framework.