Michael Arthur

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This article is about the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds. For the High Commissioner to India, see Michael Arthur (British diplomat).

Michael Arthur (born 1954) has been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds since 1 September 2004. He was previously Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences at the University of Southampton.

Arthur graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine in 1977 and became a Doctor of Medicine in 1986.

Arthur's academic career began at Southampton, where he was appointed research fellow and lecturer in medicine in 1982, senior lecturer in 1989 and, at the age of 37, to a Chair of Medicine in 1992. He first developed interests in the cell and molecular pathogenesis of liver fibrosis on a two-year Fogarty International Travelling Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, (1988-1990). In 2002, he took up a Fulbright distinguished scholar award to conduct cell biology research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. His contribution to research has been acknowledged with the award of the American Liver Foundation Research Prize (1987) and the Linacre Medal of the Royal College of Physicians, London (1994),a year after becoming a Fellow. He became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998.

Arthur became Director of Research at Southampton in 1995, Head of the School of Medicine in 1998 and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences in 2003. Under his leadership, the School achieved the maximum 24 points in its teaching quality assessment and a score of five in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, one of only three medical schools in the UK to achieve excellent outcomes in both teaching and research.

Arthur has made a significant contribution in a number of national roles. He has chaired the cell and molecular panel at the Wellcome Trust (2003-2004). He was a member of HEFCE’s Research Assessment Exercise panel for the 2001 assessment for hospital-based medicine and HEFCE’s strategic research committee (2003-2005). Other roles include membership of the Department of Health’s advisory group on hepatitis (1998-2004) and President of the British Association for the Study of the Liver (2001-2003). He currently chairs the board of trustees of the British Liver Trust and is also currently chair of the national steering group for the National Student Survey.

He has been on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Journal of Hepatology, Comparative Hepatology, Gut and Clinics in Gastroenterology.