Maria Balshaw appointed new Master of University College
University College is delighted to announce that the College’s next Master will be Dr Maria Balshaw CBE, former Director of Tate galleries.
Dr Balshaw will take up the post on 1 September 2027, following Baroness Valerie Amos’ successful seven-year Mastership, and become the College’s second female head of house. Her long and varied career spans both academia and the cultural sector, and she brings with her a wealth of leadership experience.
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Maria Balshaw will take up the post of Master in September 2027.
Maria Balshaw began her academic career in 1993 as a lecturer in cultural studies at University College Northampton before moving to the University of Birmingham as a research fellow and lecturer in visual culture in 1997. In 2002 she became Director of Creative Partnerships in Birmingham, an action research programme bringing artists and schools together to support creative learning for young people.
Maria Balshaw has served as Regional Director for Creative Partnerships in the West Midlands and then as Director of External Relations and Development at Arts Council England (West Midlands); Director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, part of the University of Manchester, and joint Director of the Whitworth and the Manchester City Galleries in 2011. She also served as Director of Culture for Manchester City Council and was a member of the National Council of Arts Council England. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Services to the Arts in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2015.
She became Director of Tate in 2017 and was the first woman to take up the role, leading the family of galleries, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool. She steered the organisation through the challenges of Covid 19, while strengthening Tate’s collection through a greater focus on gender balance and global representation.
In 2022, alongside her role at Tate, Maria was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge, delivering a series of public lectures at Murray Edwards College, where she became a Life Fellow. The lectures formed the basis of her book, Gathering of Strangers: Why Museums Matter, published in 2024.
Maria Balshaw said, ‘I am excited and delighted to be taking up the role of Master of University College, Oxford. The College has long embodied a genuinely inclusive spirit and has worked to ensure that the highest performing students, from the widest range of backgrounds, find their personal and intellectual home within the College walls. It’s an attitude that connects to my own career-long commitment to widening access to the arts. I look forward to building on the considerable achievements of Baroness Valerie Amos and to embody, as Master, the spirited, welcoming environment that characterises life at Univ.’
