Simon Robertshaw MA RCA, Professor of Digital Media

Since completing his master’s from the Royal College of Art, Simon has worked across the commercial, cultural and artistic sectors. Simon has worked across many creative, media and communication disciplines and has interfaced with the creative and digital sectors to inform a relevant and more business-minded approach to higher education. Simon’s reputation as a creative innovator and academic is at an international level having worked in six UK institutions of higher education and been external examiner in over ten institutions.

As head of research at the International Centre for Digital Content at Liverpool John Moores University, Simon developed creative new media solutions across a number of technologies within cultural, creative and commercial sectors. He established the first incubator in the UK, focusing on companies in the digital sector pushing forward the boundaries of conventional academic thinking and provided new working models that have influenced and changed current thinking on academic activity and the creative/corporate interface. Successful innovations included the first set top box solution for communities in collaboration with Sun Microsystems and 3D mapping on the Hewlett Packard hand-held palm. In April 2007 Simon was the founding Director of Sandbox, providing creative solutions for a wide variety of large organisations such as McKinsey through to the NHS.

Simon joins us from University of East London where he was a dean for eight years managing the school of arts and creative industries. The school has three departments covering media, journalism, fashion, music writing and performance with thirty-five undergraduate programmes, twelve masters, and a doctoral programme including a professional doctorate in fine art and practice-based doctorates. He has been instrumental in putting in place a new academic framework for the school and has introduced an extensive programme of growth and diversification aligned to the needs of industry.

Simon prides himself on the belief that the opportunity for students should extend beyond the confines of academia and impact directly on society. He has put in place initiatives to reduce the attainment gap, improve progression and continue to develop strong career paths for students in a world that needs creativity and innovation.