Dr Frances Dow, Chair

dr frances dow
Frances Dow was, until her retirement in December 2003, a Vice Principal at the University of Edinburgh with responsibility for Development and Alumni Relations. Her background is that of an academic historian, but from the early 1990s her career was almost exclusively concerned with management. Within the University of Edinburgh, she occupied a series of senior management positions. From 1995 to 1997 she was Assistant Principal responsible for staffing strategy; and before becoming Vice Principal in 2002 she was, for five years, the top-level budget-holder and manager (with the title of Provost) for a group of humanities faculties comprising over 300 staff and 4000 FTE students. For many years she convened the University's Staff Committee and was co-chair of the Joint Consultative and Negotiating Committee, in partnership with the recognised trade union for academic staff.

Frances Dow has been a member of several public bodies. In June 2007 she was appointed Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, having been a Commissioner and Chair of the Education Committee from 1998-2004. She holds other public appointment and voluntary positions, in the fields of education, immigration and healthcare. She serves as a lay member on the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, whose mission is to promote best practice and consistency in the regulation of healthcare professionals. She is involved with two Scottish Executive Health Department projects: on the regulation of healthcare support workers (where she chairs the UK-wide Steering Group); and on the development of the Physician Assistant role. Currently, she is a council member of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics and is also a Trustee of the Immigration Advisory Service, which is the largest single provider of legal representation to intending migrants to the UK. She is also a member of the Court, or governing body, of Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, the UK's newest university, where she takes a particular interest in staffing policy and development.

A graduate of the Universities of Edinburgh and York, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1986. Her publications include Cromwellian Scotland 1651-1660 and Radicalism in the English Revolution 1640-1660.