King’s College London appoints Melbourne medical dean as next head

King’s College London has recruited its leader from Australia for the second time in a row, announcing that Melbourne-based neuroscientist Shitij Kapur will be its next president and principal.

Professor Kapur is currently dean of the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and the university’s assistant vice-chancellor for health.

He will take charge at King’s in June next year. It will be a homecoming for the Canadian born clinician-scientist, who served for a decade as vice-dean of research for King’s Institute of Psychiatry and dean of its Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience before joining Melbourne in 2016.

On Monday, the two universities announced that they were joining forces with the National University of Singapore and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to boost dental and oral health research, education and practice through a new partnership called the DentAlliance.

Today’s announcement marks the latest instance of leader-swapping involving top institutions in the UK and Australia. Earlier this year, UCL named long-standing University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence its next president and provost, starting in January.

King’s current president and principal, Sir Ed Byrne, was also recruited from Australia, where he was vice-chancellor of Monash University before returning to London in 2014.

Sir Ed said he was “delighted” to be handing the baton to Professor Kapur: “With his tremendous international experience, and deep knowledge of King’s, he will be a great leader for the university.”

Melbourne vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell, who was previously senior pro vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said Professor Kapur’s appointment was a reflection of his academic career and his success leading the medical faculty “despite the challenges faced this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com