Our Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Karen Cox, will leave The University of Nottingham this summer to become the sixth Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of Kent.

Professor Cox will leave Nottingham at the end of July, taking up her new role in August.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir David Greenaway said: “Karen’s work at the University has never been less than exemplary. Whether working with cancer patients and their families on their experiences of clinical trials, or serving our University as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and as my Deputy, she has been vital to the growth and success of this institution.

“We will miss her greatly. However, we can only celebrate the achievement of being appointed Vice-Chancellor and President. I wish Karen the best of luck in her new role. She has been an outstanding Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and I have no doubt she will become an equally outstanding Vice-Chancellor.”

Professor Cox said: “By the time I leave Nottingham I will have been here for twenty-three years and I have loved every minute. I have developed academically and professionally here and have been surrounded and supported by wonderful colleagues and friends. It has been a privilege to be part of this University and I shall be sad to leave, however, it is the right thing for me to take this next step. I am tremendously excited about joining the University of Kent and am very much looking forward to this next phase in my career.

A Professor of Cancer and Palliative Care and a Registered Nurse, Professor Cox is currently a Privy Council appointed member of the Board of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

She completed her PhD at Nottingham in 1999, subsequently holding various academic posts before being promoted to Professor in 2002. Karen served as Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery from 2002-2007. She was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor in 2008. She has held two different portfolios in that role, with responsibilities covering human resources, community engagement, access and widening participation, infrastructure and capital developments and information services.

She was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor in January 2013 with responsibility for the development, advocacy, and implementation of the University’s Strategy.

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, ESRC 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.

Read an update from Project Transform Programme Director Ian Leitch about Professor Cox’s role as Project Sponsor.