Before joining the University of Birmingham, Professor Vaughan-Williams was at the University of Warwick for 14 years, latterly as Vice-Provost and Chair of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2021-24) and Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies (2015-18 and 2019-21). He was Discipline Lead for Warwick's Round 3 £1.25M ESRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) (2023-24) and Principal Investigator for the Round 2 £1.4M ESRC IAA (2021-23). He has supervised/examined more than 30 PhD students and acted as mentor for multiple post-doctoral researchers funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Earlier in his career, he held Lectureships in International Relations at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the University of Exeter. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and holds degrees in Modern History and International Relations from the University of Oxford (BA and MA), the University of Warwick (MA), and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (PhD).

Professor Nick Vaughan-Williams FAcSS is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Sciences and Professor of International Politics at the University of Birmingham. He holds an Honorary Professorship in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick.

Professor Vaughan-Williams’ programme of research - supported by grants from the British Academy, UK Economic and Social Research Council, and Leverhulme Trust - focuses on the international politics of borders, migration, and security. He is a former recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize for outstanding research in Politics and International Studies and Gold Winner of the Association for Borderlands Studies Past Presidents' Book Award. His research findings have been presented to the EU Commission, Frontex, the UK Cabinet Office, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the UK Home Office, and the Maltese Presidency. 

Since 2021, Professor Vaughan-Williams has been listed in the Stanford 'Top 2%' of world-leading scientists. His latest books are Vernacular Border Security and Reclaiming Migration (with Vicki Squire, Nina Perkowski, and Dallal Stevens). Earlier books include Europe's Border Crisis, Everyday Security Threats (with Daniel Stevens) and Border Politics. He is also co-author (with Columba Peoples) of Critical Security Studies, now in its third edition, and founding co-editor (with Jenny Edkins) of the Routledge Interventions book series which has published more than 150 titles in the interdisciplinary study of international politics. 

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Chair of the Academy’s Forum for Leaders in Social Sciences.