Colin Renfrew joined MMU in January 2011 as Dean of the Hollings Faculty, the UK’s largest provider of specialist subjects in tourism, food, hospitality management and clothing design, technology and marketing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

His early career combined teaching (Scottish College of Textiles, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and industry experience with children’s wear companies Babygro and Lawtex.

In the early nineties he joined MMU’s Faculty of Art and Design as a lecturer in fashion, moving on to Ravensbourne College as Director of Studies in Fashion in 1996. At Ravensbourne he was responsible for all fashion provision at a time when the College was proactively internationalising and he regularly travelled overseas on recruitment drives.

Appointed Dean of School at London College of Fashion in 2005, he was involved in the redevelopment of existing courses in womenswear, menswear and textiles whilst overseeing courses in product development, jewellery and bespoke tailoring. His time at the College of Fashion underpinned his expertise in course development and validation.

Colin Renfrew is a textile design graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and he was awarded an MA in Fashion from Central St Martins. His expertise lies in pedagogical approaches to learning, developing courses and design product development, and he is particularly engaged with the aesthetics of travel.

A frequent traveller to China to lecture, recruit and exhibit, he is a visiting professor at both Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and the China Academy of Arts. He is also a member of the Colleges Committee of the British Fashion Council.