Martin Hall is a British-South African academic and educationalist who has written extensively on South African history, culture and higher education policy. He is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Salford.
Martin Hall completed undergraduate and post-graduate studies in archaeology at the University of Cambridge before moving to South Africa in the mid-70s. He worked at the Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg for five years as an ethnoarchaeologist. After completing his PhD (Cambridge) in 1980, he moved to Cape Town, where he took up a post at the South African Museum. In 1983 he joined the archaeology department at the University of Cape Town. In the 25 years he worked at UCT, he held several senior positions: head of the archaeology department, director of the Centre for African Studies, director of the Multimedia Education Group, dean of the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED), and deputy vice-chancellor with responsibilities for strategic, academic and budget planning. At the end of August 2008 he stepped down from this position to take up a position at the Graduate School of Business. He was also instrumental in establishing UCT Press. In 2009 he took up a post as vice chancellor at the University of Salford (Greater Manchester), a position he still holds at the date of writing (2012). Apart from his prestigious academic positions, he held many others, such as president of the World Archaeological Congress, general secretary of the South African Archaeological Society, and national coordinator of the South African Universities Vice-Chancellors' Association (SAUVCA) Quality Assurance Forum. His career spanned both political change and transformation in South Africa and new directions in archaeology and higher education over several decades. He has written extensively on South African history, culture, and higher education policy, and was particularly interested in academic technology for innovative teaching and learning, particularly the use of digital and new media. A list of his publications appears in an appendix at the end of this finding aid.