Rama Thirunamachandran

Rama Shankaran Thirunamachandran (born September 1966) is a British university administrator and the former vice-chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University. He was previously deputy vice-chancellor of Keele University and director for research, innovation and skills at the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Early life Thirunamachandran was born in September 1966 in Britain. He is the son of theoretical chemist Thuraiappah Thirunamachandran, a Tamil from northern Ceylon. He studied at geography and natural sciences at Downing College, Cambridge, graduating in 1986.

Career Thirunamachandran worked on flood prevention projects in Bangladesh for the United Nations Development Programme. He held various posts at the University of Bristol and King's College London. He was head of research and enterprise at Royal Holloway, University of London and director of Royal Holloway Enterprise Limited. He became vice-chancellor and principal of Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) in October 2013, becoming the first British born Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic vice-chancellor of a mainstream UK university.

Thirunamachandran was chair of the Higher Education Academy (2015–2018) and a member of the board of UCAS (2010–2013). He has been on the board of Universities UK since 2017 and chair of MillionPlus (2020–2022)

Thirunamachandran is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.