Michael Arthur

Arthur was born in Purley, London, England. He attended Burnt Mill School in Harlow, Essex, at a similar time to Bill Rammell. His father was a cabinet maker and his mother was a student liaison officer at an agricultural college. He went to the University of Southampton, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine in 1977 and became a Doctor of Medicine in 1986. From 1987 to 1989 he studied at the University of California, San Francisco.

Arthur's academic career began at Southampton, where he was appointed research fellow and lecturer in medicine in 1982, senior lecturer in 1989 and, at the age of 37, to a chair of medicine in 1992. He became director of research at Southampton in 1995, head of the school of medicine in 1998 and dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences in 2003.

From 1 September 2004 he was vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds. At the time of his appointment, he was the first vice-chancellor of a Russell Group university to have attended a comprehensive school. According to the Yorkshire Post, his salary was £253,000.

Arthur was appointed president and provost of University College London (UCL) on 10 December 2012, starting in September 2013, to succeed Sir Malcolm Grant. He stepped down on 10 January 2021, replaced by Michael Spence.

Arthur was knighted in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to higher education.

He is married to consultant paediatrician, Elizabeth S. McCaughey (married 1979), and they have two daughters (born 1983 and 1985) and one son (born 1987). He enjoys sailing.

In 2009, during his time as Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds, Arthur was subject to a motion of no confidence from the Leeds branch of University and College Union (UCU) due to his proposed 10% cut in academic staff. Earlier in the next year, UCU voted to strike after 54 staff at the University lost their jobs, in the midst of plans for 700 more to suffer the same fate. This strike was supported by a record turnout (64%) with 78% voting in favour of the strike.

In 2015, Arthur accepted the resignation of Professor Tim Hunt, after a controversy surrounding reported comments made by Hunt regarding women in science.

As of 2019, Arthur was faced with continuing controversy in his role as Provost of UCL, with 94% of the academics present at an informal meeting in 2018 voting no confidence in the college’s governance. Numerous faculty complaints were directed towards an alleged lack of democracy and transparency regarding plans to expand UCL with a new site, "UCL East", inadequate teaching facilities, and a perceived decline in academic standards.