#LeadingWithPurpose Spotlight: Prof Julie Sanders, Vice-Chancellor of Royal Holloway University

Our #LeadingWithPurpose Spotlight interview series sees organisational leaders explain what leading with purpose means to them and how they strive to make their organisation a force for good in society.

In this episode, read how Prof Julie Sanders, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Royal Holloway University, does so.

What inspires you personally to lead with purpose?

Our students here at Royal Holloway are a complete inspiration to me. Watching them learn and grow and seeing what they go on to achieve as a result of what they encounter here, continues to amaze me.

It’s also great to see just how much our students – and indeed my colleagues – are driven to enable things for others. It’s a privilege to lead an organisation that is so committed to making a difference, especially when we face so many challenges as a sector and in wider society.

The sense of purpose brings much-needed clarity to what we do, and how. 

How did you find purpose in your work?

I would almost flip the question and say that my work feels like it is purpose. Our vision at Royal Holloway is to be a University of Social Purpose, and fundamental to that is understanding that it’s something we do – something we live and breathe – not a principle or a task, but everyday action.

I’m also surrounded by brilliant students and colleagues, people intrinsically motivated to do good things in the world, and who show me every day how much we need places like Royal Holloway – places of learning, collaboration and open minds that can make a real difference out in the world. 

Why is your organisation committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity?

For me, bringing more people into higher education is an essential part of breaking down barriers to opportunity.

Widening access and participation – and properly supporting students on the journey once they are here – is absolutely fundamental to our work. This is definitely a personal mission of mine, but it’s something that Royal Holloway has been doing from the very start.

Our forebears, founders of the two nineteenth-century women’s colleges that led towards the research-intensive university we are today, challenged conventions around who should participate in higher education, and understood that learning has to keep adapting to the times.

We have to keep reimagining ourselves in this context and be daring and innovative about what this can enable today.