Naren Barfield

Naren is an artist who has held several senior academic leadership positions, including leading research in two specialist art and design institutions.

Professor Naren Barfield is Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost at the Royal College of Art. He has held a number of senior leadership positions in UK higher education and has contributed to the strategic development, support, leadership and assessment of research, knowledge exchange, innovation, and postgraduate research and taught programmes across the arts and humanities, both nationally and internationally.

Since 2011 he has worked at the Royal College of Art, and has led significant growth in postgraduate programmes, student enrolments, research intensity and quality, industry partnerships, executive education, and internationalisation. He was a member of RAE2008 Sub-panel 63, REF2014 Sub-panel 34, and AHRC Peer Review Panel 2: Visual Arts and Media (2005-8), is a member of the V&A Research Institute Steering Committee (VARI), a graduate of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education Top Management Programme (TMP18), and has been appointed as a Council Member for Research England.

Internationally, Professor Barfield has been appointed to the Working Group on Models for the Assessment of Higher Art Education Institutions by the European League of Institutes of the Arts (2018), and is an advisor and assessor on research in China, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, and has led international partnership agreements with universities in China, Japan, Singapore and the US.