Claire Pike

Claire is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education Enhancement) at ARU. In this role, she leads work on curriculum development and enhancement, academic quality, student achievement, and the student experience across a wide range of courses, disciplines and delivery modes. She is passionate about the power of education to positively transform people's lives.

Claire read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, progressing to the MSc in Biochemistry and then a PhD in the field of epigenetics and transcriptional control at the Gurdon Institute. She completed a postdoctoral Research Associateship at the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, focussing on the genetics and genomics of breast cancer, and joined Anglia Ruskin University in 2013.

She has lectured on a broad range of biomedical sciences topics in London and at ARU, supervises PhD students in cognate – and education-related – disciplines, and has played a key part in creating new degree courses, which were successfully accredited. Claire is a National Teaching Fellow; a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology; a member of the Executive Committee of the Heads of University Sciences of Biomedical Sciences; and a member of the Curriculum Committee, the Education Policy Advisory Group, and the Diversity and Inclusion Network of the Royal Society of Biology. Claire led ARU’s submission to the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework, the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s successful application for an Athena SWAN Bronze Award, and is leading the Talent pillar of the Cambridge University Health Partners Life Sciences 2050 Vision.

Alongside her educational leadership and research work, Claire has taught for over 15 years at the University of Cambridge, supervising undergraduates in the Biological Natural Sciences Tripos and acting as a Director of Studies for Magdalene College.