Name Pauline Baroness | Role Politician | |
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Education Wolverhampton Girls' High School, Girton College, Cambridge | ||
Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark (née Welch; born 15 October 1931) is an educator, educationist, academic, and activist. She is a Conservative politician and was a member of the British House of Lords. In 1981 she became Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England. In 1986 she became Vice-Chancellor of South Bank Polytechnic, and serving during its transition to a university, became the first woman in history to run a British university.
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Early life
Perry was educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School and Girton College, Cambridge. In 1952 she married Oxford University lecturer George Perry, and had three sons and a daughter (Christopher, Timothy, Simon and Hilary). She became a teacher and philosophy lecturer, working in England, Canada and the USA.
Career
In 1970, Perry joined HM Inspectorate at the Department of Education and Science, and was appointed Chief Inspector of Schools in 1981. In 1986 she became Vice-Chancellor of South Bank Polytechnic, and serving during its transition to a university became the first woman in history to run a British university. She subsequently held other roles in higher education, including pro-chancellor of the University of Surrey and President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.
In 1986, she collaborated with John Cassels and James Prior to create the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) which would become National Centre for Universities and Business in 2013.
She has also been active in the Southwark Cathedral and Church of England community and the City of London. She was appointed chair of the review group examining the operation of the Crown Appointment Commission, the body which nominates Diocesan Bishops. The Perry Report "Working With The Spirit", was published in May 2001 and led to more transparent selection procedures for the appointment of Anglican Bishops.
UK Parliament
On 16 July 1991 she became a life peer as The Right Honourable Baroness Perry of Southwark, of Charlbury in the County of Oxfordshire. She sits on the Conservative Party benches. She was appointed a Conservative Party Whip in the Lords in January 2011. She retired from the Lords on 26 May 2016.