Matt Higgins

Chief Finance and Resources Officer

Matt Higgins joined as our Chief Finance and Resources Officer (CFRO) in July 2022 with a remit covering Finance, ICT, Facilities and Estates and the University’s Health and Safety.

Matt is a senior commercial leader with a career underpinned by a strong finance background, blended with a global career, and extensive experience in the higher education sector.

Brought up in Bedfordshire, he started his career in the textiles sector as a trainee accountant while studying for his professional accounting qualification at the Luton College of Higher Education, known today as the University of Bedfordshire. Matt went on to have a global career with privately owned US agribusiness and food multinational, Cargill Inc., and progressed through senior leadership roles in a variety of businesses and functional areas across multiple countries and cultures.

For the past 13 years Matt has been working in the higher education sector in roles including; Director of Finance (Operations) at the University of Surrey, Chief Finance Officer at the University of Chichester and, most recently Chief Operations Officer for the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), with a portfolio that covered the majority of the professional service departments.

Professor Andrew Church

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation)

In his role as PVC Research and innovation, Andrew will actively contribute to the University’s sustainability agenda via his role as Chair of the University's Sustainability Steering Group. He is also very committed to community-university engagement activities and is working with the Vice Chancellor to develop the University’s new community engagement strategy.

Andrew is also a Professor of the University of Bedfordshire, undertaking environmental research that is highly interdisciplinary and collaborative. He is currently working on a £1.8m project called Brown Gold funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Global Challenge Research Fund. The project involves social scientists, micro-biologists, water scientists and inclusive artists working together to examine marginality, sanitation and wastewater challenges in five growing towns in Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Nepal.

Dr Julie Brunton

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education and Student Experience)

Julie brings a wealth of experience to her role after having led on similar portfolios across three different institutions in the UK, internationally and at both single-site and multi-site universities.

While at Bedfordshire Julie will be working to "develop the Education and Student Experience Strategy for the University and all the related plans linked to this such as improving student satisfaction, retention, attainment and graduate outcomes." She will also be responsible for leading on overseeing all our UK partnerships with FE Colleges and other organisations where we have links.

Although Julie is still new to the University she's excited to hit the ground running and begin transforming our student experience and improving Bedfordshire's league table position.