FORMER EastEnders star Ross Kemp has resigned from his post as rector of Glasgow University, claiming he has been overtaken by work pressures over the past year.
His departure half-way through his three-year term of office follows a no-confidence vote last month by student leaders who criticised him for missing an engagement to speak to new students during Freshers' Week for the second year in a row.
Mr Kemp offered his resignation in a letter to Glasgow University's Students' Representative Council.
He said: ''It is with great sadness and regret that I resign as rector of Glasgow University in accordance with the wishes of the body of students whose opinion has always been my concern.
''Work pressures over the past year have overtaken me and made it impossible for me to fulfil my obligations in the way I should have liked, and that such a prestigious position deserves.
''I have fond memories of Glasgow and wish the students of the university the best of luck and success in all their future endeavours.''
He could not be contacted for further comment yesterday.
Miss Marilyn Croser, SRC president, said: ''In some ways it is a shame that he has gone, but at the same time we can draw a line under it now. Someone new will come in, hopefully with the time to be around as much as the students want him or her to be.''
She added: ''Students want to have their cake and they want to eat it. They want someone with a high profile and a successful career and they want someone available on campus whenever called upon to be there. Realistically, you are not going to get both in all that many people.''
Mr Kemp, who is best known for his role as Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, was
preceded in the post by the Greenock-born actor and Labour hardliner Richard Wilson, who proved a highly popular and effective student representative.
Some sources within the university felt Kemp was left with a hard act to follow and that, given his acting commitments, it would have been difficult for him to meet expectations raised by Richard Wilson's enthusiastic espousal of student causes, including the abolition of tuition fees.
However, criticism of his attendance record has inevitably raised questions over the wisdom of students electing so-called ''celebrity'' rectors, given that Dundee University's rector, comedy-actor Tony Slattery, has also come under fire for poor attendance. His term of office comes to an end in February.
A fresh rectorial election at Glasgow University will now be held in the New Year. It is still too early for any likely contenders to have emerged.
As well as representing the students' interests by holding surgeries and taking up their issues, the rector is entitled by law to chair meetings of the university court, the ruling body in the university.
The students at Glasgow University will, in the interim,
continue to be represented on the court by Miss Croser and the Rector's Assessor, another student, Christopher Anderson.
In the absence of the rector, the court will be chaired by the vice-chairman of the court, Dr J H Forbes Macpherson, the Chancellor's Assessor.
The Principal of Glasgow University, Professor Sir Graeme Davies, said: ''I am very disappointed that we are losing Ross Kemp as rector. When time has allowed he has made a very positive contribution to the work of the university on behalf of the students. It is unfortunate that the pressures of his professional life have made this decision necessary.''
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