Dr Stephen Driver

Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Partnerships)

As Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Partnerships) Stephen is responsible for learning and teaching and the student experience at Roehampton. He chairs the University’s Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee, and has responsibility for the academic professional development and student engagement teams. Stephen leads on Roehampton's education strategy, and is the academic lead for the University’s Access and Participation Plan, National Student Survey and submissions to the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF).

Since 2014, Stephen has worked closely with colleagues across the University to enhance the quality of teaching and student outcomes and to strengthen quality assurance. This work includes a university-wide curriculum review underpinned by new graduate attributes, and a retention project to identify and support students at risk of non-continuation. Roehampton was awarded TEF silver in 2019, with the panel highlighting evidence of the reduction in the attainment gap for BAME students.

Stephen studied politics at the University of Sheffield (BA 1984) and completed an MA (1986) and ESRC-funded DPhil (1990) at the University of Sussex, with a thesis on the governance of market relations between firms. He was a research associate on an ESRC-funded project on digital media at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University (1990-91), and a lecturer in social sciences at Sussex (1991-94). Stephen joined Roehampton in 1994, and between 2010 and 2014 was head of the Department of Social Sciences responsible for all aspects of academic management.

He has written or co-written four books on British politics: New Labour (1998 and 2006), Blair’s Britain (2002) and Understanding British Party Politics (2011). In 2002 he set up the Social Research Centre at Roehampton to carry out research and social impact studies with partners including Amnesty International UK, the Church of England, the Methodist church, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, Linklaters, JP Morgan, the London Development Agency, and a number of London borough councils, primary care trusts and Sure Start partnerships.