The University of Nottingham’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Greenaway has announced his decision to retire.

He will step down from the post on September 30 2017 at which point he will have served the University for 30 years, with 20 of those as a Member of its Executive Board: as Vice-Chancellor, Acting Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor.

In a statement to staff he said it had been a decision which he had not taken lightly.

He said: “This does not reflect any diminishing appetite for or commitment to my job. Far from it. I have the same desire and energy as when I took on the role. But it is time to give more of that energy and commitment back to my family who have supported my 24/7 lifestyle for so long, and without complaint.”

He added that he would use the next 13 months to see through developments key to future success and sustainability, saying “I will do everything possible to ensure my successor has the strongest possible platform on which to drive us forward, together with a superb senior management team, and an outstanding and inspiring University community”.

John Mills, President of Council at The University of Nottingham said: “David has made a remarkable contribution not just to our University over many years but to the wider higher education and academic world.

“The University of Nottingham, through its teaching and research, has the ability to transform lives and David’s commitment to that has been unrelenting. He has been, and remains, an exemplar of achievement through education.”

Vice-Chancellors are appointed by Council in accordance with our Statutes and Ordinances and the appointment is made after consideration of a report of a Joint Committee of Council and Senate which will be established by Council in the coming months.

Sir David, who will be 65 on his next birthday, has led the University as Vice-Chancellor since 2008, is a renowned economist, researcher, teacher and academic leader with an international reputation.

He was appointed to the University as a Professor of Economics in 1987 and was subsequently a Dean, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and founding Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy. He was a Member of the Government’s Asia Task Force and Higher Education Task Force. He is Chair of the CASE Europe Board of Trustees, Chair of the Russell Group of Universities, and a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire.

As an academic, he continues to lecture on Current Economic Issues to first-year undergraduates in the School of Economics. He is the Co-editor of a leading journal and continues to publish research in the fields of exporting and productivity, cross-border investment, international trade and economic development.

As the Vice-Chancellor, he leads an institution with more than 46,000 students worldwide, 8,000 staff and a turnover in excess of £600 million. The University is a trailblazer in global higher education, as the first foreign university in the world to establish a Sino-Foreign campus in China (2004) and the first British institution to open a fully operational overseas campus, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, in 2000.

Sir David’s public service has encompassed a wide range of roles.

As a Chairman and member of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body between 1998 and 2010, he played a key part in advising the Prime Minister and Cabinet on levels of pay, benefits and charges for members of the UK’s armed forces.

Sir David was also a member of the UK Senior Salaries Review Body (2004-10) and has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the European Commission, the United Nations, the Department for Transport and the UK Treasury.

He was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to Higher Education.

Earlier this month, along with a team of 12 riders, he completed a 1,400-mile cycle challenge, navigating the four compass points of mainland Britain to raise funds for Breast Cancer Research at the University. Over the last six years he has cycled almost 7,000 miles to help raise more than £2.8 million.