Michael Farthing

Michael Farthing attended Henry Thornton school, a state grammar school in Clapham, London.[1] In 1969, before qualifying as a doctor he spent time volunteering at a mission hospital in a village in the Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh, India.[2][3] He gained his medical degree from University College, London (UCL) and the University College Hospital Medical School in 1972.[4]

Farthing completed his early medical training at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.[4] In the 1970s he returned to India for a second time as a doctor on a film set.[2] After an appointment as research fellow, honorary lecturer in gastroenterology at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1980, he was appointed Wellcome Tropical Lecturer and worked in India, Boston and Costa Rica as visiting lecturer and assistant professor.[4] Upon returning to the UK in 1983, he became senior lecturer and honorary consultant back at St Bartholomew's Hospital's department of gastroenterology.[4] In 1990 he was appointed professor of gastroenterology at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and held this post for five years.[5] From 1995 to 2000 he was Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine at Bart's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry.[5] During this time he held the post of professor of gastroenterology at Bart's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Trustee and Director at the Barts Foundation for Research from 1996-2000. During this period he oversaw the postdoctoral work of Rebecca Fitzgerald.[6]

He was honorary professor and consultant physician at University College, where he was first elected in 1998.[7]

In 2000 he moved to Glasgow and became Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Medicine at the University of Glasgow. Following this, he was Honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist for the St George's Healthcare NHS Trust from 2003-2007.[8][9] He concurrently held the positions of Principal, St George's, University of London from 2003-2007, and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Medicine University of London from 2005-2007. From 2009-2011 Farthing was Chair of the Health and Social Care Policy Committee of Universities UK.

He was Non-Executive Director of the Greater Glasgow NHS Board from 2001-2003 and Non-Executive Director of the South West London Strategic Health Authority from 2003-2007. Other positions include Non-Executive Director of the Brighton and Sussex University Trust and Chair of the Quality and Risk Committee for the Trust since 2013.

He has also had numerous Government and national body roles. These include Co-ordinator (Gastroenterology) for the UK/Poland Health Agreement first from 1990–92 and then 1992-94,and member for the Education Committee and Undergraduate Board of the General Medical Council, both from 2001-8. As a member of the Education Committee of the General Medical Council, Farthing played a part in curriculum planning for the new Medical School established jointly by the Universities of Hull and York,[4] opened at the same time as the similar establishment created by Sussex along with the University of Brighton.

Farthing became Vice-Chair for the UK Panel for Research Integrity in Health and Biomedical Sciences; has been Honorary Consultant in Gastroenterology to the British Army since 1991; and is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

He has served on the editorial board of numerous international and national publications, and in 1996-2002 was the editor of 'Gut' periodical, as well as being a member of several Research Councils, including the Medical Research Council Systems Board Grant Committee from 1988-1992.

In 1997 he was appointed editor of Gut, International Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.[10] It was during his time as editor that he came across the problem of research fraud.[11] The problem of scientific misconduct led him, with other journal editors, lawyers and professor of ethics, to cofound a UK Committee on Publication Ethics, Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).[12] Farthing served as chair of the Cope.[13] In 2013 in Shanghai, he presented a paper on research misconduct: A grand global challenge for the 21st century. It was later published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (2014).[14]

In 2007, Farthing was appointed the seventh vice chancellor at University of Sussex,[5] where he led plans for re-development.[15] It set out plans to grow its research income, double international student numbers and increase engagement with the business community. The plan also puts significant investment into the campus itself, with new academic buildings and residences on campus to support academic growth and to respond to student demand.[16] In July 2012 Farthing closed the university’s Centre for Community Engagement (CCE), leading to a number of redundancies. CCE had played an important role offering lifelong learning and part-time degrees and short courses for those in employment and otherwise unable to attend university.[17] In the same year he cautioned that to re-introduce Masters courses once withdrawn takes years and could affect professions that require particular skills such as toxicology and geological sciences.[18] He led a move to greater international activity by the University, personally leading the creation of partnerships with institutions in China.[19] This internationalisation led to the appointment of a member of the executive specifically to lead this area of University work for the future.[20] He oversaw the creation of 13 schools of studies (beginning in August 2009), including the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, which altered the scope for interdisciplinary communication and collaboration for which Sussex has been known.[21] A regular column in the University's Bulletin used to set out his vision for the development of the University.[22] He also used to hold termly meetings with staff, podcasts of which are available.[23]

When in office, Farthing disbanded the renowned Linguistics Department — a move condemned by Noam Chomsky as "a serious blow to the intellectual life of the university"[24] — and cut funding to many others. Whilst he is credited with having improved the University's finances, his large-scale culling of academic and other staff initiated in November 2009 was unpopular, and provoked strike action by the UCU lecturers union and widespread civil disobedience by students on the campus. In addition to the wide criticism by faculty and students alike of Farthing's proposals, there had also been a number of protests and occupations taking place at the University. In late November 2012, several dozen students barricaded themselves in the conference centre at Sussex University in protest against plans by the vice chancellor, Michael Farthing, to outsource campus services.[25] In December he took action to suspend five students associated with recent occupations of administration buildings and restrict them from returning to campus.[26] In early 2013 the level of student protest at Sussex over privatisation resulted in Farthing publicly considering the defunding or underfunding of the Student Union.[27] An early day motion calling on Farthing to retract the suspensions was signed by 13 Members of Parliament.[28] Farthing announced his intention to resign the post of Vice-Chancellor in September 2015.[29]

In 2019, Farthing was elected Master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.

After working on and publicly speaking on Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings, Farthing wrote Leonardo da Vinci: Under the Skin, with his brother.[30]

In 1987 he was awarded the Research Medal by the British Society of Gastroenterology.[4]

He was secretary of the British Society of Gastroenterology from 1990 to 1994, chair of the Scientific Committee UEGF 2004-2009, and president of the British Society of Gastroenterology from 2007-2008.[31] between 2014-2015 he was president of the United European Gastroenterology.[32]

Other awards include the International Cannes Water and Medicine Prize (2000); the Gideon de Laune Medal from the Society of Apothecaries and the Henry L Bockus Gold Medal from the World Gastroenterology Organisation.