About Dr Alex Ayre
I’m a senior education leader and independent consultant with more than 20 years in higher education: a former Dean, institutional Director of Online and Distance Education, Head of Department and Professor of Applied Psychology. I move between strategy and delivery, from diagnosing a difficult portfolio to getting programmes through validation, accreditation and launch.
I’m also a Chartered Psychologist and HCPC-registered Occupational Psychologist, so I pay as much attention to people, teams and change as to structures and spreadsheets.
Experience
- Dean, Faculty of Health, Education and Wellbeing, University of Wolverhampton – a £75m+ faculty with six schools, 500+ staff and around 13,500 students
- Director, Online and Distance Education, University of Wolverhampton – built an online operation serving around 3,500 students across six intakes a year; grew programme revenue from £6.6m to £10.6m in a single year
- Professor of Applied Psychology (Learning and Teaching), University of Wolverhampton
- Director, Distance Learning and Online Programmes, University of Liverpool – grew online postgraduate psychology from 48 to around 650 students
- Postgraduate Director, Aberystwyth University
- Exclusive Retained Consultant, Higher Education Partners (2024–2025)
- Founder, Chirality Consulting (since 2006)
Qualifications and recognition
- PhD in Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast
- National Teaching Fellow (2018) and Principal Fellow, Advance HE
- Chartered Psychologist (BPS) and HCPC-registered Occupational Psychologist
- Three Vice-Chancellor’s Awards, for Research Impact, Student Experience and exceptional team delivery
- Four books with Routledge, including The Psychology Student’s Career Survival Guide (2021)
- Research covered by the BBC, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Times, Telegraph, El País and CBC
Specialisms
Online and digital education strategy, institutional transformation, operating models and workforce design, quality and academic governance, programme validation and launch, responsible AI in curriculum and quality, psychometrics and evaluation, and executive coaching.
Research and impact
- Principal Investigator on a £798,667 Office for Students programme addressing barriers to postgraduate research for students of colour
- Institutional lead for support to Nizhyn University, Ukraine, including distance education and special-needs provision
- Founded PsychLiverpool, an online community of practice for more than 5,000 students across Merseyside
- Wrote the Association for Business Psychology’s national certification standards and university accreditation framework
- Funded sabbaticals at the MIT Media Lab and Carnegie Mellon University
- Research and development work across the UK, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Palestine, Hong Kong and the Middle East
Governance roles
- Chair of the Board, Association for Business Psychology (2018–2023)
- Chair and Trustee, Girls’ Educational Foundation, Uganda (2022–2024)
- Former Non-Executive Director, National Examining Board for Dental Nurses
Earlier publications appear under the name Alexandra Forsythe.
