The University welcomes Professor Karen Cox as our new Vice-Chancellor and President.
Professor Cox takes up the post following her appointment in January 2017. She joins Kent from the University of Nottingham, where she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
Sir David Warren, Chair of the University’s Council, said: ‘I am delighted to welcome Professor Cox to the University. It is a uniquely challenging time for the higher education sector as we adapt ourselves to the new legislative framework in the Higher Education and Research Act, and confront the implications of leaving the European Union. Kent is very well positioned to deal with the new environment, and Professor Cox brings to us not only a very distinguished academic and management record from her long experience at Nottingham, but a strong reputation as an inspirational leader. I am looking forward enormously to working with her, as I know are all the members of the Council.’
Professor Cox said: ‘I am proud to be leading such an outstanding institution as the University of Kent. I would like to thank my predecessor Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow for her exceptional legacy. Under her leadership, the University has gone from strength to strength. A gold rating for the TEF and an outstanding result in the most recent REF firmly places Kent among the UK’s best. I look forward to working with staff, students and alumni to ensure our university continues to develop and grow.’
Professor Cox will be responsible for the leadership and management of the University, including students and staff across its seven locations: Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome.
A Professor of Cancer and Palliative Care and a Registered Nurse, Professor Cox is a member of the Board of the Nursing & Midwifery Council. Her academic and research interests include patients and families’ experiences of cancer clinical trial involvement, cancer trial management and more recently, choice and decision-making in palliative and end of life care. Her work has been funded by Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Economic and Social Research Council and the NHS.
She studied at King’s College London, Oxford Brookes and the University of Nottingham, and has been a Visiting Professor at Trinity College Dublin and Yale University.