Deborah Johnston

Prof. Deborah Johnston is the Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic Framework) with overall responsibility for education at LSBU. She joined LSBU in April 2020, coming from a similar position in SOAS University of London, a role she held for over four years.

Deborah is an economist by training. She completed an undergraduate degree in Economics and an MPhil in the Economics and Politics of Development at Queens’ College Cambridge. She completed a PhD in Economics in 1997 from SOAS University of London and has split her career across academia, charities and government.

Her academic work has focused on inequality and poverty, and she is passionate about the power of education to change people’s opportunities in life. She is a person who stammers and has worked closely with both the British Stammering Association and the Stammering Through University Campaign to ensure greater awareness of the needs of students who stammer. Her work at SOAS also involved a close partnership with the Students Union to eliminate the Racial Awarding Gap. In both LSBU and SOAS, she is the institutional champion supporting access and success for all students. Deborah obtained Principal Fellowship of HEA in 2019.