Saints Spotlight: Professor Dame Sally Mapstone
Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, Principal and Vice-Chancellor
How did your St Andrews story start?
I first came to the University as a researcher in the 1980s, working in Special Collections on manuscripts and early printed books, and being invited up from the University of Oxford, where I was based, to give papers and lectures. I continued to do these things through the 1990s and noughties and right up until the time when I became Principal in 2016. My field of study is Older Scots literature, principally in Scots and Latin, and our University has wonderful holdings in this regard. When I first came to St Andrews there were hardly any coffee shops, or much in the way of shopping, but I loved the place from the moment I set foot in it.
What are your current priorities as Principal and Vice-Chancellor?
We have just launched the University’s ‘Making Waves’ fund-raising campaign which will take the University onto a new level with buildings for our staff and students, endowed academic chairs, and scholarships at undergraduate and postgraduate level. I hope everyone in the University will want to be involved in making this a success, as it is about securing a strong and purposeful future for this remarkable institution. The Campaign will dynamically interact with the University’s strategic priorities, of World-leading, Diverse, Entrepreneurial, Digital, and Sustainable St Andrews.
The past few years have been challenging for universities, but St Andrews is innovating and growing while others are contracting. Great universities never stand still; we must always move forward, but we have to do so with rhythm and with impact.
What is your vision for the University and how do you plan to achieve it?
My vision is for a university that brings together quality and equality, that prizes both innovation and tradition, and believes that research and teaching go strongly together. Our University Strategy is designed to promote and achieve this, and our Making Waves Campaign will be strongly aligned with that.
The University Court oversees the University’s strategic direction, and the Principal’s Office, Schools and Units deliver our mission, but ultimately all of us, staff, students, alumni, and supporters, are crucial to our success.
In your opinion, what makes the University of St Andrews unique?
There is nowhere else like this: a beautiful coastal setting, a town that houses two iconic institutions, a set of unique and meaningful customs and traditions, and a University that has done what no other has done, in surpassing Oxbridge in domestic league tables.
Share your favourite spot in St Andrews.
The Principal’s pew in St Salvator’s Chapel, the very heart of medieval St Andrews. I enjoy being next to the extraordinary tomb of bishop James Kennedy, about whom I have written as a scholar, and I invariably find the atmosphere in St Salvator’s both calming and inspiring.