Harper Adams is the University for food production and technology, animal health and wellbeing, and their contribution to sustainable, living environments. In 2026, we are celebrating 125 years since our foundation. More ambitious than ever, we are ranked 87th in the world for Agriculture and Forestry in the QS World University Rankings 2026 and among the UK’s top 40 institutions in the Complete University Guide 2027.

We are creating a new Faculty of Business, Engineering and Technology. Highly interdisciplinary and designed with deliberately low walls, it will build capability in its own right while supporting growth across the University.

Its two Schools — Engineering and Harper Adams Business School — will be education hubs. Three outward-facing Institutes — Sustainable Food and Farming, Harper Food Innovation and the Harper Institute of Technology — will draw industry into the University. Interconnectivity will be key: education informed by science and industry; technology translated into adoption and productivity; and academic expertise connected to employers, new markets, commercialisation and professional learning.

There are substantial foundations on which to build. Harper Adams is the dominant player in agricultural engineering and has significant strengths in automation, robotics, data and emerging technologies. Our food-focused Institutes connect us directly with the opportunities facing the UK’s largest manufacturing sector and its wider supply chain. Growing the Business School and School of Engineering will be an early priority.

The opportunity is to create for food and natural resources the kind of productive relationship between academic expertise, business and industry that has transformed other sectors. We are seeking an entrepreneurial academic leader with the imagination to build a new model and the discipline to deliver it.

You will be intellectually and commercially credible across business, science, technology, education and industry, with evidence of leading people, strategy, transformation and delivery. You will know how to develop talent, build a performance culture and turn ideas into results.

Reporting to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, you will join the Vice-Chancellor’s Delivery Board and play a central role in the future of Harper Adams.

The deadline for receipt of applications is midnight on Monday 21st December 2026.

Please send applications to harperadams@networkedpeople.com.

Applications must include a full CV and a letter of application setting out your interest in the role and details of how your knowledge, skills and experience match the person specification (no more than two pages).