Ex-editor to take over at Kingston

FORMER THES editor Peter Scott has been appointed as the next vice chancellor of Kingston University.

Professor Scott's appointment was confirmed by governors on Monday afternoon. He will succeed Robert Smith, who retires at the end of the year after 15 years in the post. Professor Scott is expected to take up his appointment in January next year.

Oxford modern history graduate Professor Scott is pro vice-chancellor of Leeds University and founder and director for the institution's Centre for Policy Studies in Education. His newspaper career included time on The Times Educational Supplement and The Times before he was appointed THES editor in 1976, a post he held until 1992.

Professor Scott said: "It will be a great challenge to match the leadership qualities shown by Bob Smith as vice chancellor of Kingston University. It will also be a great opportunity because higher education in Britain is right in the middle of a fundamental transition from being an elitist system to becoming a mass system playing a key role in shaping the 21st-century world."