Elaine Thomas obituary

My former colleague Elaine Thomas, who has died aged 68 of a heart attack, was the founding vice-chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts.In 2003, when I was director of the Kent Institute of Art & Design, I approached Elaine, then director of the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, with the idea of joining our institutions to form a specialist art, design and architecture university. Cautious at first, Elaine soon embraced the suggestion, which was partly aimed at protecting the