Professor Paul Curran has been honoured with a Knighthood in the New Years Honours.
Published (Updated )
City University London is delighted to announce that its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Curran, has been honoured with a Knighthood in the New Year Honours, for his wide-ranging achievements in higher education.
Professor Curran said: “This is a great honour, not only for me but for all of City’s staff, students, alumni, partners and friends. It is a daily privilege to lead such a strong and distinctive global institution.”
"A Knighthood is an amazing and a profoundly humbling surprise. I am immensely grateful for the life-changing effect that higher education had on me, for the encouragement of my many colleagues and for the support of my wife and daughter, who have been with me every step of the way."
Professor Curran is a transformational university leader who used his commitment to academic excellence to improve the quality of higher education at three universities. He was a pioneer in satellite Earth observation as a NASA research scientist, an academic geographer and an advisor to the European Space Agency. Professor Curran served for many years as a member of the Natural Environment Research Council and chaired its Audit & Risk Assurance Committee. He is a former Chair of the Higher Education Funding Council for England Workforce Report and member of the Quality Assurance Agency Board. He is currently President of the Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Society and Chair of the Pay Review Body for Doctors & Dentists, the Universities & Colleges Employers’ Association and The Conversation UK.
Among the first to congratulate Professor Curran were Mr Rob Woodward, Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council and Alderman the Lord Mountevans, Lord Mayor of London and Chancellor of the University.
Mr Woodward said: “I know that my colleagues on Council and across City will join me in congratulating Professor Curran on this prestigious recognition. City University London is being transformed under Professor Curran’s leadership. In the past few years we have doubled the proportion of our staff producing world-leading and internationally excellent research, modernised our estate and increased the satisfaction of our students by more than any other university in the country”.
"2016 will be a very special year for City, as we celebrate the anniversary of our Royal Charter, our joining the University of London and now the Knighthood of our Vice-Chancellor."
Alderman The Lord Mountevans said: “I am so thrilled that our Vice-Chancellor has been honoured in this way. Professor Curran personifies a commitment to excellence, professionalism and service that are the hallmark of both our great University and the City of London.”