One of the UK’s most prominent vice-chancellors has announced he is leaving his university.
Announcing that he will depart from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the summer, Edward Peck said “it is the right time to hand this role to a new leader” as the Midlands institution is embarking on its next strategic cycle, due to run from 2026 to 2031.
“I am very proud of all we have achieved together over the last 10 years at NTU,” said Peck, who has been vice-chancellor and president since 2014.
Commenting on his institution’s achievements in this time, Peck noted NTU had “doubled our student numbers whilst remaining focused on exceptional student experience and support”.
NTU had also “worked with regional partners, influenced national policy, supported our students to prosper and delivered great impact with our research”, he said.
On the national stage, Peck has become one of the sector’s most high-profile university leaders. In 2018 he was asked by then-prime minister Theresa May to join the panel of a post-18 education review of fees and funding chaired by former banker Philip Augar.
Its findings were released in 2019, but the response from the government, now led by Boris Johnson, only arrived in February 2022, leading to relatively minor changes related to student loan interest rates, repayment thresholds and an extension of repayments to 40 years for new borrowers from 2023. Tuition fees were also frozen for another two years.
In 2022 he was appointed the sector’s first Student Support Champion by the Department for Education, and he chaired the Ministerial Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce a year later.
He is a trustee of both the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea) and admissions service Ucas, and was an elected member of Universities UK’s board between 2019 and 2022.
Caroline Wayman, chair of NTU’s board of governors, said Peck left an “outstanding legacy” at NTU.
“Not only has NTU experienced considerable growth during Edward’s tenure, the outstanding quality of our teaching has been acknowledged twice in the Teaching Excellence Framework, and our world leading research performance recognised in subsequent Research Excellence Framework outcomes,” she said. “We have been awarded the accolade of University of the Year five times and have made a huge impact on the lives of our students and the communities we serve.”
