Professor Harris Beider

Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement, Enterprise and Innovation

Professor Harris Beider joined Birmingham City University (BCU) in May 2024 as Pro Vice-Chancellor (PVC) for Engagement, Enterprise and Innovation. Harris’s role has strategic responsibility for advancing BCU’s pivotal role in the regional and national economy, as well as internationally, through building partnerships, working with our communities, and advancing our reputation for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Before joining BCU, Harris was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Engagement at the University of Bradford. He has previously worked at BCU as Head of Social Sciences, and Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences. Harris’s extensive academic experience has included roles at the University of Birmingham as Senior Fellow at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies and at Coventry University as Professor and founding Academic Director of the Institute of Community Cohesion. He has also worked in the United States, as Visiting Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where he taught the Master of Public Administration (MPA) programme.

Harris studied Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick and completed a PhD that focused on Race and Housing at the University of Birmingham.

His academic specialism is on cross-cutting themes around identities, social change and place, which has been funded by research councils and foundations in the UK and internationally.