Research England Council member
Professor Colin Riordan is a member of Research England’s Council.
Colin studied German at The University of Manchester, gaining his PhD from there in 1986.
After teaching English as a foreign language at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in Germany from 1982 to 1984, he was appointed as Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in German at Swansea University from 1986 to 1998, when he moved to Newcastle University to become Professor of German.
He was appointed Head of the School of Modern Languages at Newcastle in 2001. After three years in that role, he was appointed as Faculty Dean of Postgraduate Studies, and a year later, in 2005, as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
In October 2007 he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex, before moving to Cardiff University in 2012, where he served as President and Vice Chancellor until 2023.
Professor Riordan has undertaken numerous board roles including:
- Universities UK
- UCAS (twice)
- Advance HE
- the Association of Commonwealth Universities (until May 2023)
- as Chair of UUKi
- as Chair of Universities Wales
- as Chair of The Conversation
From 2021 to 2023 he was Chair of the IDP Connect Strategic Advisory Board.
Period of appointment: July 2023 to March 2027.
Last updated: 1 September 2023