Trainor was born in the United States. He was awarded an honorary knighthood (KBE) in June 2010 for services to higher education in the United Kingdom. The award was honorary because of his American nationality, but on 31 December 2010 the knighthood was made substantive by Queen Elizabeth II following his assumption of dual citizenship (American and British).[1]
As a result of his work with King's College London, the institution established a scholarship in his name, the Professor Sir Richard Trainor Postgraduate Research Scholarship, in 2014.[18]
Family
He is married to Marguerite Dupree, an academic historian of medicine who is Honorary Professor of Social and Medical History at Glasgow University. They have two grown-up children.
Trainor was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich and Professor of Social History (2000–2004). Prior to this appointment, between 1979 and 2000 he was an academic (latterly Professor of Social History) and administrator (successively Director of the Design and Implementation of Software in History [DISH] Project, Dean of Social Sciences and Vice-Principal) of the University of Glasgow. In 2004 Trainor became Principal of King's College London, where he was also Professor of Social History.[19] In 2009 the title of President of King's was added.
Between 2007 and 2009 Trainor also served as President of Universities UK (UUK),[20] the organisation that represents the heads of all UK Universities. In this role he engaged with the new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and latterly, the successor Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, on a wide range of issues including autonomy, funding, research, standards and immigration. He served on the Confederation of British Industries' Higher Education Task Force from 2008 to 2009.[21] As part of his work with UUK Trainor co-chaired the Prime Minister's UK/US Higher Education Study Group, which resulted in a major initiative, the UK-US Higher Education Global Innovation Fund.[22]
After becoming Principal of King's in 2004, Trainor oversaw the promotion of the College from 96th to 19th place in the QS World University Rankings (2015/16), making it the 5th ranked UK university.[23]
In 2010 King's was named UK Sunday Times University of the Year.[24] According to 2014's Research Excellence Framework (REF), the academic institution rose 15 places since its last assessment in 2008, climbing on grade point average to reach seventh place.[25]
Trainor oversaw the College's role in the creation of King's Health Partners in 2009, an academic health science centre, in which King's College London collaborates with Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, King's College Hospital, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.[26] He also oversaw King's College London joining the Francis Crick Institute in 2011.[27]
During Trainor's tenure, in 2009 King's acquired the East Wing of Somerset House,[28] after 180 years of intermittent negotiations between King's and the Somerset House authorities. Somerset House East Wing was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in February 2012.[29]
Under Trainor's leadership, the College launched King's Cultural Institute, enhancing ties to a number of nearby national cultural institutions.[30] Also under his leadership, the College sponsored the King's College London Mathematics School, which subsequently was recognised as the Best State Sixth Form School of the Decade by The Sunday Times School's Guide.[31]
Trainor received the Annual Leadership Award of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in June 2011 for his role in the College's fundraising (which raised more than £500 million in its 'World Questions/King's Answers' campaign) and for alumni relations.[32]
Trainor oversaw the establishment of a number of Global Institutes – the Brazil Institute,[33] the Russia Institute,[34] the India Institute[35] and the China Institute[36] – at the College as part of greater focus on internationalisation at King's. These centres of research and study aim to focus on contemporary developments in fast-changing parts of the world.
In March 2012 Trainor joined the IPPR Commission on the Future of Higher Education. In May 2012 HEFCE announced it was to undertake a Review of Philanthropic Support for Higher Education throughout the UK and Trainor sat on the review board.[37]
In June 2013 Exeter College, Oxford announced that Trainor was the preferred candidate to succeed Frances Cairncross as Rector.[38] The College announced his formal pre-election in October 2013. Trainor took office on 1 October 2014, during the College's 700th anniversary year. The Rector is Head of the College with oversight of all its activities. He and Exeter's circa 60 Fellows constitute the Governing Body (chaired by the Rector). The Governing Body is responsible for Exeter's staff, its student population of c.380 undergraduates and c.300 postgraduates, its finances and its buildings. A key project completed in early 2017 was Exeter's Cohen Quadrangle, on Walton Street in central Oxford, the College's largest single physical expansion in its more than 700-year history.[39] In the meantime Cohen Quadrangle has won a number of architectural awards.[40]
Another major building project at Exeter was the restoration and renovation of the College's Victorian library designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.[41] Trainor oversaw the adoption in 2019 of a new strategic plan, under which the College has diversified its undergraduate admissions profile, adopted new Statutes, and launched ambitious sustainability initiatives.[42] In addition, he served as Chair of Oxford's Conference of Colleges 2017-2019, when it renewed and reformed the system (the College Contributions Scheme) of intercollegiate taxation and strongly encouraged Oxford-wide changes in the profile of undergraduate admissions. Between 2016 and 2024 Trainor was also a Pro-Vice-Chancellor without portfolio of Oxford University, chairing professorial appointment panels and presiding at ceremonies when the Vice-Chancellor was not available.[43] He also chaired the Jardine Foundation's [44] Scholarship Committee between 2018 and 2024.
Trainor was also governor of the Royal Academy of Music (2013–2022)[45] and the London Museum (2014-2021)[46] and has chaired the Museum's Academic Panel since 2016. Since 2022 he has been a non-executive director of the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.[47] Since 2016 he has been a member of the Council of Reference of the Westminster Abbey Institute.[48]
Restructuring at King's College London, 2010 and 2014
During his tenure at King's College London, the institution announced a restructure of its funding. The plans had a negative reception in the press and in the educational field.[49][50]
Trainor responded by highlighting the pressures facing UK Universities and giving an interview to The Times about the challenges of funding cuts[56] and his belief that further higher education funding cuts would risk serious damage to the sector.[57][58]
Further, the institution's decision to close the Division of Engineering in 2009, was criticised for risking charges of "reckless academic vandalism".[59] However, King's has developed a research and teaching programme in Biomedical Engineering, assisted by a grant (under the programme of Centres of Excellence in Medical Engineering) from the Wellcome Trust and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).[60]
The university's choice of cuts was the subject of a House of Commons Early Day Motion in March 2010: "That this House notes the proposal by the Executive of King's College London as part of its budget review process to abolish the Chair of Palaeography, the only one of its kind in the United Kingdom; further notes the fundamental importance of palaeography to a broad and interdisciplinary scholarly community; considers that without the development of palaeographic skills, millions of documents would be rendered inaccessible, thus depriving the nation of its full historical legacy; and therefore urges King's College London to consider very carefully any proposals in respect to this prestigious and important Chair."[61]
In January 2012, King's announced the appointment of Dr Julia Crick as Professor of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies in the School of Arts & Humanities.[62]
Another proposal for restructuring was announced in May 2014.[63] There was an adverse response in the media to the proposed changes.[64][65][66][67]
The University and College Union have provided a regularly-updated list of media coverage.[68] King's College London has also provided a list of rebuttal press statements.[69]
Published works
Black Country élites: the exercise of authority in an industrialised area, 1830–1900. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Urban governance: Britain and beyond since 1750, edited by Robert J. Morris and Richard H. Trainor. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
University, city and state: the University of Glasgow since 1870, by Michael Moss, J. Forbes Munro and Richard H. Trainor. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the University of Glasgow, 2000.
Reform and its Complexities in Modern Britain: Essays Inspired by Sir Brian Harrison, edited by Bruce Kinzer, Molly Baer Kramer and Richard Trainor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
^"Helix Summer-Fall 2012"(PDF). The Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Archived from the original(PDF) on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
