Dame Ruth Deech (born 1943, is an academic and Governor of the BBC.

Deech studied Law at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating with a first in 1965. She returned to the college in 1970 to be a tutorial fellow in Law, a job she retained until 1991 when she was elected Principal of the college. She retired in 2004 and was succeeded as principal by Tim Gardam . The college has since named its latest building after her; the Ruth Deech Building, the fourth to be named for a principal.

She has held many other positions during her life; among others, she served as Senior Proctor of the University of Oxford between 1985 and 1986, chair of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) from 1994 to 2002 and was appointed to a four year term as a Governor of the BBC in 2002, the same year that she was made a Dame of the British Empire.

After leaving St Anne's, Dame Ruth was appointed the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, dealing with the resolution of student complaints.