John G. Hughes

John G. Hughes (b, 28 Aug 1953)^[1] was elected the second president of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in 2004 for a ten-year term and was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Ireland^[2] until he resigned this post in September 2010 to take up the position of Vice-Chancellor at Bangor University, Wales.^[3][4][5]

Early Life and Career

Professor Hughes was born and raised in Belfast, educated at St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School and at Queen's University Belfast where he obtained a BSc with First Class Honours in Mathematics and a PhD in Theoretical Physics^[6]

Following appointments at Queen's and at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, he became Professor of Information Systems Engineering at the University of Ulster in 1991. He held a range of senior academic positions at the University of Ulster and was actively involved in promoting research and technology transfer initiatives which attracted substantial funding to the University. He sits on the boards of a range of public and private sector organisations. Under his presidency at Maynooth, the institution suffered severe financial problems.^[7]

Hughes has extensive international links in Europe, the US and Asia. He has initiated a large number of research collaborations with prestigious institutions including the Max-Planck Institutes, Carnegie-Mellon University, MIT and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Under Hughes' leadership at Bangor University, the institution was repeatedly subject of public criticism in the media as well as by senior political figures and trade unions, which included the appointment of Hughes' wife to a newly created senior management position^[8], the purchase and refurbishment of his house by the university (costing the institution £750,000)^{[9][10][11][12][13]}, sky-rocking expenses bills by senior management^{[14][15][16][17]}, the discrepancy between senior management salaries and remuneration for staff working on zero hour contracts,^[18][19] the axing of lifelong learning and other courses (including Archaeology, Women's Studies, and Fine Art),^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]} and the management of Bangor's Pontio arts centre building, whose costs spiralled (£12m over budget) and whose opening had to be postponed several times (causing another £1m bill).^{[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]}. In 2014, Hughes attracted £45m debt funding from the European Investment Bank^[37][38], however in 2017, it was revealed that Bangor University was heading for a severe financial crisis resulting in 115 compulsory redundancies as part of an attempt to save £8.5m.^{[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]} From Hughes' takeover in 2010, when Bangor University made £4,2m profit, to 2016, the university's nominal income had risen by 12 percent, but their expenditures by 19 percent.^[47] In 2016, Hughes enjoyed an eight percent pay rise (up to £245.000),^[48][49] whereas Bangor University's overall staff costs declined by 4.1 percent.^[50]

References