Sir Adrian Smith, currently director general for knowledge and innovation at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, will take up his post on 1 September.

Sir Adrian, a former principal of Queen Mary, University of London, is taking over from Geoffrey Crossick, who will step down in the summer after two years in the job.

As vice-chancellor, Sir Adrian will be the principal officer of the university, which comprises 18 self-governing colleges and institutes.

Sir Adrian, a statistician, said: ¡°As an ex-head of Queen Mary and an ex-deputy vice-chancellor of the university, I am very aware of both the challenges and opportunities of the national and international higher education landscapes over the coming years.

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¡°I look forward to working with all colleagues across the university to ensure we best position ourselves to overcome the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities.¡±

Announcing Sir Adrian¡¯s appointment, Dame Jenny Abramsky, chair of the university¡¯s board of trustees, said: ¡°His immense knowledge of higher education and his long association with the university and its colleges make him ideally placed to lead the university through its future challenges.¡±

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Sir Adrian, who led Queen Mary for 10 years, has also been director general for science and research at BIS and a professor of statistics and head of the department of mathematics at Imperial College London.

He studied for a bachelor¡¯s degree in mathematics at Selwyn College, Cambridge, before taking a PhD at University College London.

He was also professor of statistics and head of the department of mathematics at the University of Nottingham from 1977 to 1990.

A past president of the Royal Statistical Society, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2001 and knighted in the 2011 New Year¡¯s Honours.

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jack.grove@tsleducation.com