Professor Michael Farthing is a British academic administrator, physician and medical researcher. He is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex, having succeeded Professor Alasdair Smith in September 2007. Prior to his appointment as Vice Chancellor at Sussex, his academic career was in Medicine, specialising in Gastroenterology. His last post before moving to Sussex was as principal of St George's medical school, University of London.[1] He is the 2009-10 Chair of the Health and Social Care Policy Committee of Universities UK.
Since becoming Vice-Chancellor at Sussex, Michael Farthing has led the creation of a new strategic plan for the University - Making the future,[2] which sets out a growth agenda for Sussex, planning to grow its research income, double international student numbers and increase engagement with the business and local community. The plan also puts significant investment into the campus itself, with new academic buildings and residences on campus to support academic growth and to respond to student demand.[3]
The term Making the future draws from a phrase used by the first Vice-Chancellor, Lord Fulton, which said that higher education at Sussex was concerned with making the future.
Michael Farthing has also led a move to greater international activity by the University, personally leading the creation of partnerships with institutions in China.[4] This internationalisation has led to the appointment of a member of the executive specifically to lead this area of University work for the future.[5]
Under his leadership, the University has also been restructured to create 13 schools of studies (beginning in August 2009), including the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. These new schools are headed by leading academics appointed from within the University and from institutions elsewhere.[6]
A regular column in the University's Bulletin sets out his vision for the development of the University.[7] He also holds termly meetings with staff, podcasts of which are available.[8]
Since taking office, Farthing has effectively disbanded the renowned Linguistics Department — a move condemned by Noam Chomsky as "a serious blow to the intellectual life of the university"[9] — and cut funding to many others. Whilst he is credited for having improved the University's finances, his large-scale culling of academic and other staff initiated in November 2009 has been unpopular, and has provoked strike action by the UCU lecturers union and widespread civil disobedience by students on the campus. In addition to the wide criticism by faculty and students alike of Farthing's proposals, there have also been a number of protests and occupations taking place at the University.
Prior to his appointment as Vice Chancellor at Sussex, Professor Farthing's academic career was in medicine. A graduate of University College London Medical School, London, he held posts in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Hospital ("Barts"), London, specialising in Gastroenterology.
In the early 1980s, Farthing was a Wellcome Tropical Lecturer and held overseas posts as visiting lecturer and Assistant Professor in India, Boston and Costa Rica, before returning to Barts. [10]
In 1995 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Barts and The London NHS Trust. In 2000 he moved to Glasgow before arriving at St George's in 2003. [11]
He has been Honorary Consultant in Gastroenterology to the British Army since 1991, and is a member of the Editorial Boards of a number of national and international Gastroenterology journals. He was President of the British Society of Gastroenterology for 2007-08. [12]
As a member of the Education Committee of the General Medical Council, Farthing played a part in curriculum planning for the new Medical School established jointly by the Universities of Hull and York,[10] opened at the same time as the similar establishment created by Sussex along with the University of Brighton.
He served as chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (Cope).[13]