Dear Alumni,

It is a great pleasure to write to you for the first time as Interim Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Westminster. I take over from Professor Peter Bonfield, who has made an outstanding contribution to our University over the past eight years, and I look forward to building on his work.

Guess how I am spending my first week in the role? Teaching! I am leading a week-long intensive postgraduate module, Diplomacy, Crises and Global Challenges. Many of you will remember a lecturer who changed the way you saw the world. That is where Westminster does its most important work, and that is where I wanted to begin.

I know something of the journey many of you have made. I came to the UK as an international student, fell in love with British higher education and never quite returned home. When I joined Westminster in 2007 as a Reader in the Centre for the Study of Democracy, I could not have imagined that I would one day lead it. Nearly twenty years and many roles later – Research Director, Head of Department, Head of School, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Westminster has become my home: a place where I could be myself, and where I have seen students from every background become the best versions of themselves. On one of her visits, my mother saw how my colleagues and students interacted with me and said, with relief, “Your university is your home, I can see.” I hope Westminster still feels a little like home to you too whether you left us recently or many years, or even decades, ago.

As we look ahead to the year to come, we have an opportunity to build on what makes Westminster so special. We will continue to strengthen our education and research, deepen our global engagement and connections with employers and communities, and create opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to thrive. Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and sustainable development will remain central to this work.

Whenever you graduated, you are part of a long story. Our institution opened on Regent Street in 1838 to bring science to anyone with a shilling and then, under Quintin Hogg, opened its doors to working people at a time when education belonged largely to the privileged. Opening doors has been in our DNA ever since – and each of you carries that story into the world, wherever life has taken you.

Next year we mark another milestone. On 16 June 2027 we will celebrate 35 years since we became a university, and I want our alumni to be at the heart of it. Do you have a memory, a photograph or a story from your time here? An idea for how we should mark the year? Please share it with us via alumni@westminster.ac.uk – the Westminster story is yours too.

There are many ways to stay close. Keep your details up to date so that we can invite you to events in London and around the world. Reconnect with classmates through our global alumni community. Come back to Zone29, our new home for careers and enterprise, and get involved – mentor a student, speak on a panel or share how your career has unfolded. Few things inspire our students more than hearing from someone who once sat where they sit now. Or simply write and tell us what you are doing; we would love to hear from you.

Wherever you are and whatever you have gone on to do, you remain part of the Westminster community – not a former member, but a lifelong one. We are proud of you, and I look forward to meeting many of you in the year ahead.

You are Forever Westminster – Let’s Go Westminster! 🐉

Best wishes,

Dibyesh

Professor Dibyesh Anand

Interim Vice-Chancellor and President

D.Anand@westminster.ac.uk

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Annabel Morgan

Latest posts by Annabel Morgan (see all)

• Dibyesh’s Blog to Alumni - 27 October2026
• Peter’s Blog to Alumni - 30 July2026
• Could you be a regional President of a Westminster Alumni Community? - 30 June2026