Professor Sir Nishan Canagarajah
In this section
Nishan was born and educated in Sri Lanka, before moving to the UK where he received his BA (Hons) and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge in 1989 and 1993.
He joined the University of Bristol as a research assistant in 1993 and worked in a number of academic roles, serving as the Faculty of Engineering Research Director, Head of Department of Computer Science, Head of Merchant Venturers School of Engineering and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He became Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise in August 2014.
Nishan is internationally recognised for his research on signal processing and texture classification. He served on national and international research funding, governance and postgraduate education panels, as well as acting as a technical consultant for Sony, BT, BBC, Orange, Thales, Toshiba and the Met Police.
Nishan is President & Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, ranked as a top 25 UK university in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 and named University of the Year 2025 by the Daily Mail.
Nishan’s appointments to national roles include:
- Chair of Midlands Innovation Board
- Chair of Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA)
- Advisory Board member of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)
- Trustee of Into University
- Member of Universities UK
- Chair of The Conversation
Nishan has served on several national and international panels on research funding, governance, and postgraduate education.
In the 2026 King’s New Year Honours, Professor Canagarajah was awarded the title of Knight Bachelor. Professor Sir Nishan Canagarajah is the first minority ethnic Vice-Chancellor in a century at the University of Leicester, where he led one of the most diverse universities in the country – 38% of students are from the most disadvantaged areas and 69% from minority ethnic backgrounds. His achievements are reflected in the fact that the University received three University of the Year nominations, winning the title last Year from the Daily Mail, achieving Teaching Excellence Framework Gold and top 30 in the Research Excellence Framework.
