Britain's Oxford University is set to appoint an Irish woman as its first female vice chancellor.

Louise Richardson, from Tramore in Co Waterford, is a political scientist and is the first woman to take up the position in the 785 year history of the university.

Her area of expertise is terrorism, and she has previously been principal and vice chancellor at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Prior to joining St Andrews in 2009, Professor Richardson lived and worked in the United States - where she was executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

On her nomination, Prof Richardson said: "Oxford is one of the world's great universities. I feel enormously privileged to be given the opportunity to lead this remarkable institution during an exciting time for higher education."

"I am very much looking forward to working with talented, experienced, and dedicated colleagues to advance Oxford's pre-eminent global position in research, scholarship, and teaching".

Subject to approval of the university’s parliament, she will succeed the current vice-chancellor on January 1st 2016.

The post also reportedly comes with one of the highest salaries in the UK education sector.

Prof Richardson holds a BA in history from Trinity College Dublin, an MA in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and an MA and PhD in government from Harvard University.