One hundred and sixty five years ago, St Mary’s was a Catholic teacher training college with six students. Today it is a university with 6,000 students, run by an ex-diplomat with big plans for the future, as he tells Elena Curti On the wall in the main reception of St Mary’s University, Strawberry Hill, south-west London, there are portraits of the Queen and Pope Francis.It’s a reminder that St Mary’s is both a church and state institution. The career of the university’s vice chancellor, Francis Campbell, reflects the same twin loyalties. He is a serious Catholic and ex-Foreign Office diplomat whose most high-profile role before arriving at St Mary’s was as the UK’s ambassador to the Holy See.When Campbell completed his period of office in Rome,