据香港大学官网2月2日发布的公告称，香港大学校长马斐森已经正式辞职。大学校务委员会将开展全球招聘遴选新校长的工作。上述公告提到，马斐森的5年任期合约原至2019年3月始完结，马斐森表示辞职的决定是基于个人原因，于2月2日发电邮给港大大学成员告知他的决定。经过与家人的详细商量之后，他决定出任英国爱丁堡大学的校长一职。

57岁的马斐森是英国医学学者、临床医学专家，自2004年担任布里斯托大学医科及牙科学院院长。2014年4月，就任为香港大学校长至今，接替离任的徐立之，任期5年。马斐森就任后，面对多次校内争议，包括副校长任命风波及校委会会议被包围等。但对于此次离职实际，港大学生表示震惊，很多同学对校长辞职感到非常意外。

以下是马校发给全体港大的同学和老师们的邮件，具体内容如下：

Important message from Professor Peter Mathieson, President and Vice-Chancellor

Dear colleagues, students, alumni and friends,

I am writing to inform you that I have resigned as your President and Vice-Chancellor, and I plan to leave HKU in January 2018. Thereafter I will take up a new appointment as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.

During my one year s notice period, it will be very important that there is no loss of momentum at HKU: the Senior Management Team is unanimously and heavily engaged in a process of rorm towards achieving our Vision of Innovation, Interdisciplinarity and Internationalisation converging on Impact, and being Asia s Global University. I will remain dedicated to the task and working hard with all of you to achieve our goals. The departure of one person must not be allowed to derail the progress being made at this great and venerable University.

It has been a distinct privilege to lead HKU for almost three years and I am sorry and somewhat surprised to be leaving bore the completion of my term. The HKU students, staff, alumni and friends are wonderful and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you all: I regret that it was not for longer. There are very few universities in the world that could have tempted me to leave HKU but Edinburgh is one of them. I have many personal reasons for returning to the UK and I have decided after extensive discussions with my family to take this opportunity now.

I will leave HKU with a sense of great progress having been made during my time here. We have articulated a strategic vision for the next ten years of the University and put in place many of the rorms and modernisations that will be required to deliver that vision.

We have already greatly improved our international visibility, including new strategic partnerships with top universities in the US, UK and Australia and our pioneering dual degree agreements with the likes of University College London, Sciences Po and University of Southern California.

We have put together a superb Senior Management Team (SMT), rormed the reporting structures for senior academic staff including establishing a clear mandate from the SMT for the Faculty Deans, rormed academic career structures, staff review and development procedures and streamlined and made more transparent and objective our hiring, promotion and tenure decisions.

Ambitious proposals are well-advanced to rorm the budgeting of the University and ensure that our resources can be optimally deployed. We have established a recovery plan for Centennial College. We have radically improved the governance situation regarding the HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, including addressing the financial risks associated with the project and negotiating a detailed repayment schedule.

We have taken bold moves to address the University’s chronic shortage of accommodation for staff and students including purchasing and renting new sites; resolving a very longstanding issue around the lease for High West which will allow us to develop the site; collaborating with St John’s College on an exciting development plan; subdividing unduly large apartments and taking back from the private market numerous units for staff usage.

We have responded to the patchy results in Research Assessment Exercise 2014 by focusing attention on areas of concern, made strategic new hires, rewarded excellence and planned proactively for the next research assessment.

I have personally led forts to improve gender equity at HKU and we have made considerable progress: eg shifting the proportion of women at Dean level or above from 9% when I arrived to over 20% and rising now; hosting or co-hosting numerous events with like-minded organisations and generally making equal opportunities part of the daily dialogue at HKU; we have improved maternity leave and provision of breast-feeding facilities; mandated female representation on all search committees, appointments panels and shortlists and made dinite plans for a nursery on campus.

Perhaps most satisfyingly of all, repeatedly during the last three years we have articulated, promoted and dended the University’s core principles during a period of unprecedented political complexity in Hong Kong, ensuring that our students and staff can continue to flourish in an environment that respects their freedom of speech: long may this continue.

When I arrived it was clear that HKU already had many excellent staff and a superbly talented student body. We have continued to attract the brightest and best students and we have hired some wonderful new staff during my time here: they will help to take forward the bold plans that we have set out. As outlined above, my departure must not derail the progress or slow the momentum: I hope you will all give full support to my successor.

I am very optimistic about HKU’s future: it is a wonderful institution in a region of the world that is replete with further development potential. I hope to maintain a collaborative relationship with HKU in the future and to keep in close contact with you all. Tina and I will leave here with many friends and many happy memories. Thank you for giving us the honour of being part of the history of this distinguished University.

With very best wishes for the future,

Peter Mathieson

President and Vice-Chancellor

继2月2日当天，爱丁堡大学官网也发布了马斐森将出任下任爱丁堡大学校长职务的通告。

爱丁堡大学通告提到，马斐森称自己很享受在香港大学任职的时光，并对接下来将带领爱丁堡大学步入新的篇章充满期待。

此外，英国爱丁堡大学校长Sir Timothy O shea在担任爱丁堡大学校长一职长达15年之后，自己决定于2017年9月离职。

以下是马斐森出任爱丁堡大学校长的入职信：

一封辞职信，一封入职信，此起彼伏，可见国际教育行业也是风云四起。当然，这两所大学都有非常悠久的历史，想留学的同学们不用担心！

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