Appointing our next Vice-Chancellor

As you will know, our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Anthony Forster, recently announced that he will be retiring in July 2024. The process to select the University’s seventh Vice-Chancellor has commenced, and the University has appointed the international executive search firm Perrett Laver to work with us to identify candidates with the experience and attributes to lead the University into its seventh decade and beyond.

Over the next three weeks, we are inviting members of our community to provide feedback that will help us to fully understand the priorities, challenges, and other key considerations that will need to be taken into account in identifying the best candidate.

Provide written feedback

To assist this process, we are inviting feedback on three key questions:

• What is distinctive about the University of Essex that we should work hard to retain?
• What do you perceive to be the key challenges that the University will be facing over the next decade?
• What are the key characteristics that you would like to see in the next Vice-Chancellor?

Please send your contributions privately to Perrett Laver at essexvc@perrettlaver.com. The deadline for feedback is Monday 9 October 2023. Once submitted, your feedback will be received and reviewed by Perrett Laver to inform their work with the University as part of the recruitment and selection process. Please note that your views are expressed in confidence.