Professor Hai-Sui Yu

Contact 

Email the Interim Vice-Chancellor’s office: vice-chancellor@leeds.ac.uk

About

The Vice-Chancellor and President is responsible for the leadership, management and financial stewardship of the University and is accountable to its Council. They chair the University Senate and Executive Group and represent the institution externally – at home and abroad. 

Professor Hai-Sui Yu has been Interim Vice-Chancellor and President of the University from 1 November 2023. 

Previously Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, he deputised for the Vice-Chancellor and President, providing oversight and coordination of the University’s academic strategy and its planning and delivery. He also leads on the University’s international strategy. 

He also holds the role of Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. 

In addition to the responsibilities of Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Hai Sui will retain responsibility for some of his key responsibilities as Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, delegating others to senior colleagues. 

These responsibilities include: 

• line-managing the Executive Deans of all seven academic faculties and taking the executive lead on the University’s strategic and operational planning via its annual Integrated Planning Exercise and its strategic change programmes, overseeing their delivery against the institution’s key performance indicators; 
• line-managing the University’s Deans for Global Development, Global Engagement, and Cultural Engagement, as well as the Director of Strategic Planning Performance and the Pro Vice-Chancellor: Digital Transformation and Dean of Digital Transformation – providing strategic oversight for the development of our digital transformation strategy; 
• line managing the Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), supporting the development and implementation of the University’s EDI strategy; 
• leading the development and delivery of Leeds’ sector-leading Climate Plan, based on our seven climate principles. 

Professor Yu chairs the University’s principal academic authority, the Senate, and is Chair of the University Executive Group.  

Prior to joining the University of Leeds in 2016, Professor Yu served as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement), Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Head of the School of Civil Engineering, and Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Nottingham. 

During his academic career, Professor Yu has worked with many leading institutions in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Austria, and Italy.  

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011 for outstanding personal engineering achievement.