Professor Martin Hall (born in Guildford,[1] England) is a British-South African academic and educationalist who has written extensively on South African history, culture and higher education policy. He is currently Vice Chancellor of the University of Salford.[1]
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Hall studied at Chichester High School For Boys, one of the two state schools in the United Kingdom at the time that prepared students for Oxbridge admission.[2] He was the first in his family to complete university.[2] He completed his Bachelor's degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University in 1974.[3]
He worked firstly in Lesotho in the area of Archaeological excavations and then in London for the Southwark Archaeological Rescue Unit. He moved to South Africa in 1975 where he worked for a five year period as an ethnoarchaeologist in Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg. He completed his Doctoral studies at Cambridge in 1980[3] and moved to Cape Town in the same year. He then became Chief Professional Officer for the Department of Archaeology at the South African Museum.[3]
He joined the University of Cape Town's Department of Archaeology in 1983 and was promoted from Associate Professor to Professor of Historical Archaeology.,[4] becoming in due course the Head of Department. In 1983 he became Director of the Centre for African Studies[3]
He was Director of the Multimedia Education Group from 1997–2001 at UCT
In 1998, he was appointed as a Fellow of the University of Cape Town, and the following year became the inaugural Dean of the Higher Education Development Unit,[3] charged with coordinating support for students from underprivileged backgrounds.[2]
In 1999 he was appointed as President of the World Archaeological Congress[4] and also served as General Secretary of the South African Archaeological Society.
In 2002 he was promoted to Deputy Vice Chancellor[3] and held this position for six years with responsibilities for strategic, academic and budget planning. He stepped down from this position at the end of August 2008 to take up a position at the Graduate School of Business.[5]
He is a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa.[4]
He was appointed in October 2008 as the next Vice-Chancellor at Salford.[6] He arrived at Salford in April 2009 as Vice-Chancellor designate and officially took up the post on 1 August 2009.
Hall is critical of tuition fees and any potential rises in fees as a result of a review by the UK government
… I think fees are a bad thing. I know I am going against what a lot of my colleagues would say. If you see the fee cap lifted, you will see the fees for some universities go up to £10,000 a year.[7]
… You are talking about graduates leaving with £30,000 of debt in fees alone. Students can still get a grant but if family income is less than £25,000. What if you earn just over the threshold and have two children who both of university age. How can you afford the fees? The children can take out a loan. But do you really want them to be burdened with that before they start working?.[7]
Hall holds joint British and South African citizenship.[6] His wife, Professor Brenda Cooper, is an academic specialising in post-colonial and African literature. They have three children.[2]
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Professor Michael Harloe |
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salford 2009–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |