Paul Layzell

Professor Paul John Layzell DL CEng FBCS FHEA
Nationality	British
Occupation	Principal, Royal Holloway, University of London (since 2010)
Awards	Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey
Academic background
Education	University of Manchester (BA (Econ), MSc, PhD)
Academic work
Discipline	Engineering
Sub discipline	Software Engineering
Institutions	Royal Holloway, University of London University of Sussex University of Manchester

Paul John Layzell, DL, CEng, FBCS, FHEA, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (born 23 July 1957) is a British academic, academic administrator, and software engineer. Since August 2010, he has served as Principal of Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and Treasurer of Universities UK.

He previously worked at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), rising to become Professor of Computer Science (1995–2004) and its Pro-Vice-Chancellor (2000–2004). He then joined its successor, the University of Manchester, where he was Vice-President (University Development) from 2004 to 2006. Before joining Royal Holloway, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex (2006–2010).

Controversies

Layzell has been criticised in the past for statements made regarding women and BAME groups. Royal Holloway's student magazine Orbital quoted him as claiming in an open staff meeting of 29 November 2017 that “there are certain protected groups where there is a natural tendency to not have a go and put themselves in for promotion – sometimes that’s gender, sometimes it’s the BAME group”. The magazine also states that Layzell hinted during the meeting that "women were better suited to teaching than research". This was after gender pay gap statistics were released showing that the pay gap for full-time professors at Royal Holloway had increased from 8.1% in 2015/16 to 10.01% in 2016/17, making it the 7th worst university in the UK for the gender pay gap for full-time professors.

He was also the centre of criticism regarding Royal Holloway's treatment of academics who underwent industrial action in 2018. During the University and College Union (UCU) pension strikes, a group of students spent almost 120 hours occupying the corridor outside of Layzell's office in solidarity with the striking staff. The occupation ended when Layzell released an apology for the College's treatment of striking staff, which had caused the UCU to refer to it as "the UK's most hard-line university employer".