Prof Patrick Prendergast has been elected as the 44th provost of Trinity College Dublin.
The current vice provost will take over the role from Dr John Hegarty on August 1st.
Prof Prendergast said he was deeply honoured to have been elected to the role and was determined to use his experience “to stand up for Trinity’s interests and to protect our core mission of education and research”.
Prof Prendergast was elected today by the 680 academics at the college, around 80 per cent of whom cast a vote.
He defeated four other candidates; Prof Jane Ohlmeyer; Prof Colm Kearney of the school of business; Prof John Boland, director of the Crann Nanoscience Institute and Prof Des Fitzgerald, vice-president of research at UCD.
The €200,000 post is the most prestigious in Irish higher education. It comes with a residence at 1 Grafton Street, which dates to 1759. It also boasts its own art collection, including works by Jack B Yeats.
TCD is the only Irish university ranked among the top 50 in the world, but morale there has been damaged by a series of structural reforms over the past decade. Increasingly, academics complain about the “new managerialism” in the college.
A dominant theme in the campaign has also been the sense among TCD academics that the college is losing ground – especially to UCD in terms of prestige and reputation.
In recent years, the gap between both colleges has narrowed significantly in the world rankings. UCD – ranked at 221 five years ago – is now inside the top 100.