Rick Trainor to retire as King's College London Principal in 2014
Professor Sir Rick Trainor announced today his intention to retire from his role as Principal and President of King's College London in October 2014, after 10 years of leading the College.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Professor Sir Rick Trainor announced today his intention to retire from his role as Principal and President of King’s College London in October 2014, after 10 years of leading the College.
The Chairman of the Council, the Marquess of Douro, paid tribute to Professor Trainor:
‘Professor Trainor has been a highly distinguished leader of the College. Under his guidance the College’s academic strengths have improved substantially over the past eight and half years.
‘King’s has become one of only five Academic Health Sciences Centres in the UK and is one of the three university members of the Francis Crick Institute. It has acquired the East Wing of Somerset House which now houses a new Cultural Institute and the Dickson Poon School of Law.
‘Also, Professor Trainor has played a significant role in ensuring the success of the £500m fundraising campaign. Already over £400m has been raised against this target.
‘On behalf of the whole College community, I wish to extend our gratitude to Professor Trainor for his skill and commitment in progressing the College’s interests since 2004’, said Lord Douro.
In a letter to all members of the King’s staff, Professor Trainor said that 1 October 2014 had been his expected finishing date since he took up the Principalship in September 2004.
Professor Trainor said: ‘By that date, I shall have completed ten years as Principal, which I believe is long enough for any individual to hold such a rewarding and demanding position.
‘The new Principal will have the opportunity to take the College forward into what in many respects will be a new era for King's and for UK higher education. In the 2014-15 academic year the results of the Research Excellence Framework will be published, the decisions of the forthcoming spending review will start to be implemented and the next general election will take place.
‘I shall continue to be a strong supporter of the College whatever I choose to do in the next stage of my career’, said Professor Trainor.
Professor Trainor said that he was announcing his intentions well in advance of his departure from King’s so that the College Council will have sufficient time to appoint his successor, and for that successor to give notice in his or her current post.
‘There are more than eighteen months before the projected date of my departure. In the interim I will remain focused on making further progress towards our key goal of King's – now clearly a world-class university -- becoming a world leading university.’
Beginning at its meeting on 12 March, the College Council will now initiate a global search for Professor Trainor’s successor.
Editor’s note
King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world ( 2012/13 QS international world rankings ), and was The Sunday Times UK 'University of the Year 2010/11', and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 25,000 students ( of whom more than 10,000 are graduate students ) from nearly 140 countries, and more than 6,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of the College’s academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £554 million ( year ending 31 July 2012 ).
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences ( including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry ) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.
King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre ( AHSC ) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.
King’s is also one of only three academic partners in the Francis Crick Institute, Europe’s premier biomedical research institute. For more information visit http://www.crick.ac.uk/. King’s has also established Cultural, Policy and Bioscience Institutes.
The College is in the midst of a five-year, £500 million fundraising campaign – World questions|King’s answers – created to address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity as quickly as feasible. The campaign’s five priority areas are neuroscience and mental health, leadership and society, cancer, global power and children's health. More information about the campaign is available at www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers.
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