THE vice chancellor of Queen's University Belfast, Sir Gordon Beveridge, unexpectedly announced his impending retirement yesterday as the university senate held its last meeting of the academic year.
Sir Gordon (63), president and vice chancellor for over 11 years, told the senate he had decided to step down two years early, on September 30th, 1997.
In recent years, the university has paid out large sums following high profile fair employment cases. There is also a continuing controversy over the senate's decision in December 1994 to discontinue playing the British national anthem at normal graduations.
Yesterday, a Belfast newspaper claimed that an unpublished internal report on public relations at Queen's had been highly critical of aspects of the handling of the public controversies and was being used to put pressure on Sir Gordon.
However, Mr John D. McGuickian, senior pro-chancellor and chairman of the senate, the university's governing body, said no pressure had been put on Sir Gordon to resign. There had been extensive discussions and analysis of the timing of his desired retirement.
During a press conference at the university, called at two hours' notice, Sir Gordon said he had not felt under pressure to step down. Far reaching changes in higher education were in prospect, and the university was facing into a significant strategic review. His retirement would enable his successor to play a major part in repositioning Queen's and shaping its policies for the next millennium.
Mr McGuickian said Sir Gordon had been the longest serving vice chancellor since 1945. During his term of office, the university had maintained its excellence in teaching, enhanced its research profile and developed increasing links with industry. It had also reaffirmed its commitment to equality of opportunity through the commissioning and implementation of the Employment Equality Services report.
During the last 10 years, queen's intake of students had increased by 50 per cent, yet staff numbers have remained the" same, it was pointed out.
Figures issued yesterday show that 31.1 per cent of Northern Ireland born staff are Catholics and 69.9 per cent Protestants, compared with 20:7 per cent and 79.3 per cent respectively in 1987.
The figures, contained in the university's second submission to the Fair Employment Commission, also show that Queen's is the third largest private sector, employer in Northern Ireland, with over 3,000, staff.
The university continues to aim for "fair participation" it puts this at roughly 40 per cent Catholic and 60 per cent Protestant among the staff. This balance already exists for employees under 40 years of age, who constitute half the workforce.
The latest employment review proposes a detailed affirmative action programme, extended monitoring of the selection process and a further review of policies and practices.
The religious imbalance is tilted the opposite way among students. Of some 11,900 Northern students at the university last year, 37 per cent were Protestants and 63 per cent Catholics.
Sir Gordon was born in St Andrews, Scotland, and educated at universities in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Minnesota. He is a past president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and holds a large number of consultancies and board appointments in industry.
He is a director of Opera Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre. He has been closely associated with the development of the heritage centre at Navan Fort, Co Armagh, and with a number of Northern Ireland charities and cultural movements.
There will be a national and international search for his successor.
The selection process will be subject to the North's stringent fair employment legislation.