Dame Sally Davies, master of Trinity College, will step down from the role next year, Varsity can reveal.

Dame Sally, who was appointed master in 2019, will officially end her tenure in October 2026. She was the first female master of Trinity College, having previously served as the UK’s chief medical officer.

Professor Davies’ departure comes a year after she caused significant controversy by telling students that Trinity College had “no interest” in cutting ties from arms companies, after it was reported that the College had voted to divest months earlier in 2024.

During the same meeting with students, she also stated that she “regrets” setting up a £250,000 relief fund for students affected by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine as it had “set a precedent” for how universities would respond to other conflicts.

The College established the fund and decided to divest from Russian companies in 2022. Davies said publicly at the time that she was proud to be “offering concrete assistance to those in need”. However, when pressed on why Palestinian students were not receiving the same support, Davies claimed that the decision to cut ties from Russia was inappropriate.

Trinity is the richest of all of Oxford and Cambridge’s Colleges, with an endowment of over £2 billion – more than 3 times the size of St John’s’, the second richest.

Their endowment includes investments in several arms companies, including Elbit Systems, which produces drones and land-based equipment used by the Israeli army.

Dame Sally started her career in the NHS as a consultant haematologist for 30 years before joining the civil service in 2004. She was also Director General of Research and Development for the NHS and helped to create Genomics England.

More recently, Davies has overseen the establishment of a £50 million PhD fund to attract the "brightest minds" in the world to Cambridge as part of a collaboration between Trinity and the central University.

A new master will be appointed in the coming year, with applications closing in December.

As one of Cambridge’s ‘royal colleges’ the new master will be officially appointed by the monarch at the recommendation of the College. This will be the first time that King Charles III – a Trinity alumni and former Varsity writer – has appointed a master for his former College.