UNI CHIEF TO STEP DOWN
Vice-chancellor V retiring after nine years y in charge at Bangor:
BANGOR University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor John G Hughes has announced that he is to retire next August after nine years in charge.
Professor Hughes is only the seventh Vice-Chancellor in the university’s 135year history, and the university will shortly be advertising for a successor, with the role coming with a salary of around £245,000.
Bangor University’s Chair of Council Marian Wyn Jones said: “I am extremely grateful to Professor Hughes for his remarkable contribution.
“He has overseen tremendous change at the university, and has always ensured that students remain at the heart of everything we do.”
Under Professor Hughes’ leadership, Bangor University saw a number of major developments including the new £38m St Mary’s Student Village ge and the first ever collaboration between ween Wales and China to establish ha a new college in China.
He also oversaw the open- ing of the £20m Menai Science Park, the opening of the £5.5m Marine Centre Wales at Menai Bridge and the completion of the £50m Pontio project.
This latter project was as dogged by problems during cononstruction, which saw its opening ing delayed by a year.
The vice-chancellor also came under fire in 2016 for the £267,125.84 spent on maintenance, furnishing and refurbish- ing the luxury university residence on the banks of the Menai Strait, Stra which was bought on the ap appointment of Professor Hugh Hughes. U Under his tenure Bangor Un University became the first un university in Wales to be ra rated ‘Gold’ by the new Te Teaching Excellence Framew work (TEF), reflecting the ou outstanding standards of tea teaching found at the universit sity. The latest Research Excellenc lence Framework also recognise n nised that more than threequarters of Bangor’s research is either world-leading or internationally excellent. The last 18 months have been impacted by the financial premises that have been faced by most UK universities, leading to costcutting and redundancies.
Professor Hughes came to Bangor in September 2010.
Born and raised in Belfast, he is a mathematician and theoretical physicist by academic background.
Following appointments at Queens University Belfast and at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, he became Professor of Information Systems Engineering, and later Dean and then Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Ulster from 1991 to 2004.
He was then appointed President of Maynooth University in Ireland in 2004, before moving to Bangor.