Princeton Provost Nominated To Be Next Vice-Chancellor Of University Of Cambridge

Deborah Prentice, the Provost of Princeton University, has been nominated to be the next Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Prentice has been the Provost at Princeton since 2017 where she had primary responsibility for the university’s academic affairs and budget. She will succeed Stephen J. Toope, named Cambridge’s 346th vice-chancellor in 2017. He will leave office on October 1, after which Dr. Snthony Freeling will be the Acting Vice-Chancellor, until Prentice assumes office On July 1, 2023 for a seven-year term.

At Cambridge, The Vice-Chancellor is the principal academic and administrative officer of the University. The Vice-Chancellor is nominated by the University Council (the principal executive and policy-making body) and elected by the Regent House – the University’s governing body, consisting of the academic and senior administrative staff of the University. Regent House is expected to consider Prentice’s nomination on October 7.

Prentice received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University, where she also served as an acting instructor. She began her career at Princeton in 1988 as a psychology instructor while still a doctoral candidate at Yale. She was appointed assistant professor of psychology the next year, associate professor in 1995, and professor of psychology in 2000.

She has spent her entire 34-year academic career at Princeton, serving as dean of the faculty from 2014 to 2017 and chair of the Department of Psychology for the 12 years prior to that. She was named the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs in 2012.

Her academic specialty is the study of social norms governing human behavior, with a focus on gender stereotypes, intimate partner violence and excessive alcohol use.

Prentice, the author of more than 50 articles and book chapters, is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Society for Experimental Social Psychology and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She is a past president of the International Society for Self and Identity and a member of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.

“Debbie Prentice is a brilliant choice to be the next Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University,” said Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber. “She combines wisdom, skill, collegiality, and scholarly values, and she has been a spectacularly good provost, dean, and department chair at Princeton.”

Of her upcoming appointment, Prentice said: “It is a huge honour to be nominated to lead such a renowned institution. I welcome the challenge of helping Cambridge write the next chapter of its long and proud history. Higher education around the world faces many challenges but I firmly believe there are also great opportunities to demonstrate how our leading universities can together harness their expertise to solve global problems. I hope that I can play some part in leading that dialogue.”

As Prentice prepares to take the helm at Cambridge, one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished universities, she said she was proud of her numerous accomplishments at Princeton. “I’m proud of having brought people closer to the University, I’m proud of all the people I’ve hired and who are doing wonderful jobs. I’m thrilled with the financial aid and graduate stipend increases. As provost, I wanted to make Princeton more open to the world, more legible to the world and more connected.”

“I’ll always love Princeton,” she said. “I have many, many friends here. I look forward to returning and to welcoming people to visit me in Cambridge.”