Rama Thirunamachandran

Thirunamachandran was born in September 1966 in Britain.^[1][2] He is the son of theoretical chemist Thuraiappah Thirunamachandran, a Tamil from northern Ceylon.^[3][4] He studied at geography and natural sciences at Downing College, Cambridge, graduating in 1986.^[5][6]

Thirunamachandran worked on flood prevention projects in Bangladesh for the United Nations Development Programme.^[6][7] He held various posts at the University of Bristol and King's College London.^[8][9] He was head of research and enterprise at Royal Holloway, University of London and director of Royal Holloway Enterprise Limited.^[8][9] He was director for research, innovation and skills at the Higher Education Funding Council for England from 2002 to 2008.^[2][8]

Thirunamachandran was deputy vice-chancellor and provost of Keele University from 2008 to 2013.^[9][10] He became vice-chancellor and principal of Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) in October 2013, becoming the first British born Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic vice-chancellor of a mainstream UK university.^[5][10] In February 2025 it was announced that Thirunamachandran would retire from CCCU in January 2026.^[7]

Thirunamachandran was chair of the Higher Education Academy (2015–2018) and a member of the board of UCAS (2010–2013).^[11][12] He has been on the board of Universities UK since 2017 and chair of MillionPlus (2020–2022)^[2][6] and he has been a non-executive director of Medway NHS Foundation Trust (2020-2024).^[6][13]

Thirunamachandran is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.^[6][13] He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Kent in November 2020.^[7][13] He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to higher education in the 2023 Birthday Honours.^[14][15]