Professor Andy Long, Vice-Chancellor
and Chief Executive at Northumbria University, has been highlighted in a new
campaign, ‘100 Faces - First in my Family’, which shares 100 stories of how going to
university has changed people’s lives.
The national campaign, organised by
Universities UK, focuses on the stories of first-generation students and
graduates and the impact they have had on our society. It features a variety of
contributors, from Nobel prize winners, to politicians, from social advocates
to sporting stars and aims to showcase the diversity and talent of first-generation
students and how they have improved their lives after attending university.
Andy
attended the University of Warwick where he studied applied mathematics and
went on to achieve his master’s in computer integrated engineering at
Loughborough University. He did a PhD in mechanical engineering at the
University of Nottingham, where he became a member of staff. He served as Dean
and then Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Engineering at Nottingham from
2011 to 2018, when he was appointed Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Andy
was appointed as Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Northumbria University
in 2022.
Andy’s
research interests are on the design and manufacture of polymer composites for
demanding applications particularly in the aerospace, automotive and energy
sectors. He has over 350 publications including around 130 refereed
journal papers, co-authored/edited three textbooks on polymer composites,
supervised over 30 successful PhD students, and been principal investigator for
research grants totalling around £33million including the EPSRC Future
Manufacturing Research Hub in Composite Materials.
Andy was
also Chair of the Executive Management Group for Midlands Innovation, a
partnership between Central England universities, and of the SAMPE UK &
Ireland Chapter, organising conferences and events on materials process
engineering.
Because of his own journey into higher education, Andy is
passionate about ensuring students from all backgrounds continue to think higher
education is an opportunity for them.
“I was the first in my family to go to university, having attended
the local comprehensive school and sixth-form college,” he said. “When I went
to Warwick I met people from a wide range of backgrounds, who would have
different opportunities and perhaps different advantages to the ones I’d had. Going
to university has transformed my life, providing me with opportunities that
wouldn’t have been available via any other route. It has also given me a love
for higher education and the transformational power that it has, which explains
why I’ve stayed in and around universities for over 35 years.
“It continues to be important to me that we provide support for people
from all backgrounds, giving them brilliant experiences and positive outcomes.
As a university, we could decide to focus only on the students with the highest
A-level grades from anywhere in the country. But by doing that, we’d leave
behind some students with great potential who might be the first in their
family to go to university. I want to make sure we reach out and build and
maintain relationships with schools and colleges, ensuring students from all
backgrounds continue to think Northumbria is a university for them. It really
matters to me.”
In
2006 Andy was awarded the Institute of Materials, Minerals and
Mining Rosenhain Medal in recognition of distinguished achievement in
materials science, and in 2014 was inducted as a SAMPE Fellow for
significant contributions in materials and process engineering technology. In
2019 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Andy’s full story is available to read in the Higher Education Trailblazers category of the ‘100 Faces - First
in my Family’.
