Victoria Jolley is an architectural academic, educator and researcher. She is a registered Architect and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy with extensive experience in higher education leadership, professional accreditation, and international engagement. She combines strategic leadership with a strong commitment to academic excellence, student success, and the development of global partnerships.
From 2026, Victoria will lead Strategic International Partnerships for the Manchester School of Architecture (MSA), focusing on global student mobility, international recruitment, and the development of institutional networks to enhance educational and research opportunities across the School’s community.
As former Deputy Head (2022–2026), Victoria played a central role in the academic leadership and governance of one of the world’s leading schools of architecture. During this period, she supported the School’s international reputation for excellence in architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism and provided the strategy to secure a top-five position in the QS World University Rankings by Subject for four consecutive years.
Victoria has taught across undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional programmes and is committed to providing an outstanding student experience that enables graduates to achieve their professional ambitions. She has led programme development, validation, accreditation, and curriculum innovation, working closely with professional and regulatory bodies to ensure the highest academic and professional standards.
Victoria’s wider sector contributions include appointments as External Examiner at several UK universities; Independent Examiner for the Architects Registration Board; and membership of the 2025 QAA Subject Benchmark Statement Review Group for Architecture.
As a member of the MSA’s Built Heritage Research Group, Victoria’s research and teaching sits at the intersection of architectural history and urban studies, with a focus on how typologies, planning cultures, institutions, and professional networks shape the built environment over time. Victoria’s interests include typologies and urban morphology; human settlements and urban arrangements; economic and social renewal; polycentric super cities; dynamic growth and decentralisation; regionalism and ekistics; and architectural representation. Projects have examined Manchester Textile Warehouses, Edwardian Garden Cities and the development of New Towns—and these topics have been approached within a broader transnational perspective.
Victoria’s research recognises that architectural ideas and planning models have historically moved across borders through professional networks, educational institutions, and systems of governance. She considers how such knowledge circulated to shape urban and architectural development in local and global contexts. By tracing these exchanges, she seeks to situate British architectural history within wider global histories of urbanism and to highlight the interconnected nature of architectural knowledge production.
Recent publications include a paper capturing Edgar Wood’s innovative response to the 1909 Housing and Town Planning Act illustrated as a proposal for Withington, Manchester, for the Manchester Society of Architecture. This research evolved into further study of the Manchester branch of the Garden City Association’s activity and how, later, Barry Parker would incorporate garden city principles into a comprehensive city design for São Paulo, Brazil, before completing his scheme for Wythenshawe.
Victoria has a Master of Philosophy by Research and, in 2021, completed her PhD focusing on Central Lancashire New Town, Lancashire, UK.
PhD supervision: Tara Sutton (2024 - ongoing), ‘Adapting Britain’s Red Brick Universities to Meet 21st Century Pedagogical Change: The Significance of the Quadrangle’.
Academic and professional qualifications
2019 PhD, Manchester Metropolitan University
2013 Fellow, Higher Education Academy
2013 PG Cert LTHE, UCLan (SEDA accredited)
2011 Associate, Higher Education Academy
2011 University Certificate HE Teaching, UCLan
2009 Master of Philosophy by Research, Manchester School of Architecture
2006 Advanced Diploma in Professional Practice, RIBA NW
2000 Diploma in Architecture, Mackintosh School of Architecture
1997 Bachelor of Arts with Honours: Architecture 2:1
Membership of professional associations
2020 – present Chair: National Architecture Apprenticeship Forum
2020 – 2021 MMU Apprenticeship Research Unit
2020 – 2021 Committee member Manchester Society of Architects
2013 – present Fellow, Higher Education Academy
2011 – 2013 Associate, Higher Education Academy
2006 – present ARB
2006 – 2016 RIBA
2003 – 2004 Co-opted member of Manchester Society of Architects
2002 – 2003 Executive committee member and trustee of the Architecture Centre Network
Academic service (administration and management)
Deputy Head of School
Career highlights
2009 - 2015UCLan, Lancashire, Senior Lecturer. BA (Hons) Architecture Programme, teaching across studio and humanities.
2008 - 2009The Manchester School of Architecture. Associate lecturer, year one.
2005 - 2009O’Connell East Architects, Manchester. Project architect working on the refurbishment of listed buildings in Manchester and Newark and new build residential projects.
2004 - 2005Chapman Robinson Architects and EDAW, Manchester. Part 3 assistant working on master planning and urban design schemes as well as private houses, housing association, residential and leisure projects.
2003 - 2004Barnes Walker, Manchester. Architectural assistant working across commercial, master planning and external works.
2002 - 2004The Manchester School of Architecture. Associate lecturer, year one.
2002 - 2003Manchester Society of Architects and RIBA Research Trust Award. Feasibility study and research for an exhibition of architectural drawings.
2001-2003Centre for the Understanding of the Built Environment. Programme manager for CUBE’s outreach programme: The City @ CUBE. Bid writer securing funds from NWDA, Regional Arts Lottery Programme, CABE and the Arts Council.
2000 - 2002Fairhursts Design Group, Manchester. Part 2 architectural Assistant working on large-scale urban retail and leisure projects.
2000Percival Smith Associates Limited, Manchester. Assistant art director, Seven Seas Commercial.
1997 - 1998Fairhursts Design Group, Manchester. Part 1 architectural assistant working on large-scale commercial, education and pharmaceutical projects.