Stringer attended Portland House High School, Stoke-on-Trent, and Stoke-on-Trent College of Artist She then went to, where she took a Bachelor of Arts degree with joint honours in History and Politics and completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Politics in 1986.
Education From 1980-1988, she worked at Robert Gordon"s Institute of Technology, Aberdeen as a lecturer in Public Administration, becoming in 1988 the Head of the School of Public Administration and Law, and served as Vice-Principal from 1991-1996. In 1996, she was named Principal and Vice-Patron of Queen Margaret College (QMUC) in Edinburgh. Her time at the College saw much expansion, and in 1998, the College was awarded full degree-awarding powers, changing its name in 1999 to Queen Margaret University College (QMUC).
From 2001-2007, she was convener of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Stringer left Queen Margaret University College in 2003 to be appointed Principal/Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University. the first woman to be leader of a Scottish university. In 2010-2011, Professor Stringer oversaw a programme of redundancies at Edinburgh Napier University which resulted in 89 staff taking voluntary severance and a further anticipated 100 staff being dismissed on the grounds of compulsory redundancy.
Professor Stringer held a number of appointments outside of academia, including Chair of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission Working Group from 1998–1999 and Lay Member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland from 2002-2007, and is Chair of Education United Kingdom Scotland.
