Sir David, Vice-Chancellor between 1990 and 2005, left the university to become Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education in London before joining the University of Oxford in 2010 as Principal of Green Templeton College and Professor of Higher Education.
Professor Julian Crampton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brighton, announced the news today with “considerable sadness”. He said: “Sir David was a friend and colleague to many whilst he was at Brighton where he played a major role in shaping the university as it gained university status in 1992.”
Professor Crampton said the university’s Board of Governors has backed a proposal to name a new academic building and library to be built as part of the Circus Street development, adjacent to the university’s buildings in Grand Parade, Brighton, after Sir David.
He said: “This will be in recognition of Sir David’s contribution to the success of the University of Brighton, the higher education sector more generally, and the cultural life of the city of Brighton and Hove.”
Sir David, born 1949, was educated at Cheshunt Grammar School, Eton College and Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar and where he took his first class honours in history. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania where he was awarded a PhD in history.
Sir David is survived by his wife Betty and two children.