Sir Nishan Canagarajah | |
|---|---|
நிஷான் கனகராஜா | |
| Vice Chancellor of the University of Leicester | |
| Assumed office November 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Paul Boyle |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Cedric Nishanthan Canagarajah 1966 (age 59–60) |
| Education | Christ's College,Cambridge (BA,MA,PhD) |
Sir Cedric Nishanthan Canagarajah [1] (born 1966) is a British Tamil academic and the current president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester. [2] [3] He was previously one of the pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Bristol. [4]
Canagarajah was knighted in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to higher education. [5] [1]
Canagarajah was born in 1966 in Sri Lanka. [6] [7] His mother was a teacher. [8] He was educated at St. John's College,Jaffna. [9] He was the Head Prefect of the college in the year 1985 [10] and also excelled in sports such as cricket,football,volleyball,and hockey. After school he joined Christ's College,Cambridge from where he received a BA honours degree in electronics and information sciences in 1989 and a Ph.D. in digital signal processing in 1993. [6] [7] [11] [12]
Canagarajah is married to Thabitha. [8] They have a daughter and two sons. [8]
Canagarajah joined the University of Bristol in 1993 as a research assistant. [6] [7] He was promoted to lecturer in 1994,senior lecturer in 1999 and reader in 2001. [7] He became professor of multimedia signal processing in 2004. [6] [7] He was promoted to research director at the university's Faculty of Engineering in 2006 and head of Department of Computer Science in 2009. [6] He became head of Merchant Venturers School of Engineering in 2010 before becoming dean of the Faculty of Engineering in 2011. [6] He was appointed pro-vice-chancellor for research and enterprise in August 2014. [6] In August 2019 it was announced that he would become president and vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester in November 2019. [13] [14]
Canagarajah's research contributions in image segmentation and texture classification are internationally recognized and his research on audio signal processing led to an interactive exhibit,Virtual Drum,at the London Science Museum. [15] He has led a number of successful international research partnerships and is currently theme leader for the joint £5M EPSRC/DST collaborative programme on next generation telecommunications systems and services,which includes a number of UK and Indian universities and industrial partners. [16]
Canagarajah has served on a number of national and international panels on research funding,governance and postgraduate education. He acted as a technical consultant for several industrial partners including Sony,BT,BBC,Orange,Thales,Toshiba and the Metropolitan Police Service. [17] [18] [19] He is part of the Universities UK advisory group to tackle racial harassment in higher education. [20]
In January 2021,members of the Leicester University and College Union voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion of no confidence against Canagarajah,in response to a proposed mass lay-off of faculty members. [21] In March 2021,students at Leicester also approved a vote of no confidence against Canagarajah,with 1010 votes for the proposal and only 82 opposed. [22] In December 2025,another motion of no confidence in Canagarajah was passed by the Leicester University and College Union in response to more proposed job cuts,with 96.2% voting in favour and 3.8% opposed. [23]
