Jenny Higham is the first woman to serve as principal of St George's, University of London, which she took up appointment in November 2015. She was the first female to be elected chair of the Medical Schools Council. Higham is also an honorary consultant at St. Georges NHS Foundation Trust and a visiting professor at the Imperial College London. Higham was born in Warrington and also lived in Gloucestershire and Norfolk during her childhood. She undertook her secondary education at Thorpe Grammar School, Norwich.
Career
Higham studied for her MBBS at University College London, graduating in 1985 with distinction. She received the Atchison Scholarship, which is an annual award presented by UCL to the student who showed the best work and greatest proficiency of the medicine graduating year. She undertook specialist training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, obtaining her MRCOG in 1992 and FRCOG in 2005. In addition to clinical training, she worked towards a research higher degree, investigating the clinical association and treatment of menorrhagia, awarded by the University of London in 1993. She remains clinically active as a gynaecologist. Higham has previously held senior positions at Imperial College London, including head of undergraduate medicine and vice dean for institutional affairs and director of education for the Faculty of Medicine. She led on Imperial College London's work to establish the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore, a partnership between Nanyang Technological University and Imperial, which opened in 2013. She then served as the school's senior vice-dean from 2013 to 2015. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the Nanyang Education University Gold Award, the Imperial College Medal, and honoured as a Fellow of the Teaching Excellence Academy at Nanyang Technological University. Higham has received “Mentor of the Year” at the Women of the Future Awards in 2011 and the Imperial College President and Rector's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Excellence in 2013. She previously worked at St Mary's, appointed as senior lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology in 1997. Here, she contributed to the amalgamation of the curricula from the three medical schools that merged to form the new medical school at Imperial College London. Higham has sat on many boards, including: the Universities and Colleges Employers Association Clinical Academic Staff Advisory Group ; the Higher Education North West London Board ; and West Middlesex University Trust. She is an active member within the Medical Schools Council, where she has been involved with academic medical policy and has chaired the council's Education Sub-Committee. She was treasurer until 2016, when she took the position of chair. She currently is a Governor of Kingston University and is on the Boards of St Georges University Hospital Foundation Trust, the South London Health Innovation Network and the General Medical Council's Education and Training Advisory Board. More recently Professor Higham has taken on the roles of Member of the board of Universities UK , Member of the board of the Universities & Colleges Employers Association and Board member University of London Institute of Paris, which commenced in 2018. She currently has a research interest in the use of advanced simulation in medical education. Her previous research publications have focused on reproductive medicine. Higham delivered the Academy of Medical Educators’ Annual Calman Lecture 2017 and then accepted an Honorary Fellowship. In July 2018 Jenny Higham was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Brighton and Sussex Medical School. The previous month she was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
