New Dean of the Faculty of Health, Education and Society is appointed

Dr Jacob Saranga has been appointed as the new Dean of the Faculty of Health, Education and Society.

Dr Saranga – currently the faculty’s Deputy Dean – will officially start in his new role on 2 December, replacing Dr Steve O’Brien who retires on 30 November.

As Dean, Jacob will have overall responsibility for staff and the strategic direction the faculty will take including stakeholder engagement, ensuring faculty-led social impact projects are supported and delivered, developing research capacity for academic staff and ensuring the student experience here continues to be of a high standard.

Jacob has worked at the University since 2017, first as Head of Health Professions, leading on partnership development, professional, regulatory and statuary body standards work across the Faculty and overseeing the test of competence contract with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

He is a physiotherapist by profession, qualifying in 1996 and working in various clinical roles before his first lecturing post at Coventry University in 2003 where he stayed for the next 12 years.

Of his new role as Dean, Jacob said: “Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to Steve O’Brien. It has been a pleasure to work with him these past two years and I, like the rest of the team, wish him all the best in his retirement.

“It’s a very exciting time to start as Dean, especially as we go into next decade there are numerous  areas to think about and consider.

“I’ll certainly be busy as I work with the faculty teams to position us to face the challenges ahead. Whether this be Brexit, political changes across the health, social care and education landscapes or the general day to day business of making sure our students are front and centre of everything we do, I’m looking forward to sharing my vision with the faculty and wider University.”