Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Whitby is to leave Warwick to take up the role of "Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Head of The College of Arts and Law" at the University of Birmingham.

Professor Whitby joined Warwick in 1996, in the Department of Classics and Ancient History. He led the start of that Department's dramatic climb up the research league tables from a score of just 2a in the 1992 Research Assessment to a 5 in the 2001 Research Assessment.

He is a highly accomplished and award winning researcher who has published extensively on late Roman and early Byzantine history and historiography. He also has a considerable reputation for his knowledge and work in the national assessment of both research and teaching in UK universities. He served as Chair of the 2008 RAE Sub-panel 59 and is a trained reviewer for the QAA.

After chairing the Classics department, and then the Board of the Faculty of Arts, it is no surprise that the University asked him to serve both on its Council and as a Pro-Vice-Chancellor. His Pro-Vice-Chancellor portfolios at Warwick have included: Teaching and Learning, International Affairs, and, most recently, Academic Resourcing.

Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift said: "Michael led or played a key role in a range of challenging and high profile tasks and issues including: Warwick's Institutional Audits in 2004 and 2008; raising the profile of teaching and learning at Warwick and launching a sequence of national teaching award winners; leading an examination into what makes teaching at Warwick unique; and helping advance Warwick's international strategy through the development of core international partners. He will be missed and we all wish him well in his new role in Birmingham."