Principal honoured with Fletcher of Saltoun Award

University of St Andrews Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Sally Mapstone FRSE has been honoured by the Saltire Society with a prestigious Fletcher of Saltoun Award for Public Life.

Dame Sally was presented with the award on Thursday 4 December at a ceremony packed with well-known faces from Scottish cultural life.

Dame Sally, who has been Principal and Vice-Chancellor at St Andrews since 2016, is a medievalist with expertise in Scottish literature. After graduating from Wadham College, Oxford, she worked as an editor at Weidenfeld and Nicolson before returning to Oxford where she combined academic responsibilities with leadership and community roles. She served as Junior Proctor of the University, Chair of the English Faculty Board, Pro-Vice- Chancellor for Personnel and Equality and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education.

She founded the Women of Achievement lecture programme and Ad Feminam, a mentoring programme to equip women to assume senior academic positions. She joined St Andrews as its second female Principal and Vice-Chancellor and fulfils several external leadership roles, and is immediate past President of Universities UK, current Chair of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) Board and a trustee of the Europaeum.

She has previously served as Convener of Universities Scotland, Vice-Chair of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Chair of Universities Scotland’s Admissions Policy Group, a trustee of UCAS and President of the Scottish Text Society and of the Saltire Society.

Dame Sally said: “I am truly honoured by the Saltire Society’s proposal to award me the Fletcher of Saltoun Award for Public Life 2025 – not least because of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun’s own (non-graduating!) association with the University of St Andrews. I am really delighted to accept the award.”

Other 2025 awardees included internationally renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti CBE; poet and playwright Stewart Conn; Chair of Psychiatry and Head of the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh Professor Daniel Smith BSc, MBChB, MSc, MD, FRCPsych; land reform advocate Andy Wightman; Carol Colburn Grigor CBE – champion of music and arts and founder of the Royal High School Preservation Trust.

Recognising the innovators and entrepreneurs shaping the cultural landscape of Scotland, previous Fletcher of Saltoun awardees include Sir Chris Hoy, Sir James MacMillan, Professor Lady Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome, ‘Brave’ composer Patrick Doyle and the late Professor Sir Geoff Palmer KT, CD, OBE.

Susan Garnsworthy, Convenor of The Saltire Society, said: “For almost 90 years, the Saltire Society has championed Scottish culture and with the Fletcher of Saltoun Awards, we recognise innovators and authorities in their fields. It is an immense honour to add the names of each of our distinguished awardees to the awards’ roll of honour. Individually, they embody exceptional dedication and accomplishment and we do hope that their awards remind us all of Scotland’s potential at home and on the world stage.”