Dr Michael Spence AC joined UCL as President & Provost in January 2021. Prior to this he was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney (2008–2020). Dr Spence is recognised internationally as a leader in the field of intellectual property theory and holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Oxford, where he headed Oxford’s Law faculty and Social Sciences division.

An alumnus of the University of Sydney, Dr Spence has a BA with first-class honours in English, Italian and Law. His other languages include Chinese and Korean.