Dr Kwiatkowski, formerly of St Andrew’s College and a Roman Catholic, takes over next August from Bart McGettrick, under whom four heads of department offered their resignations. It is understood that the Catholic Church is happy that safeguards for denominational education - which were written into the merger agreement between the uiversity and college - will be maintained through Dr Kwiatkowski’s four-year appointment.

He told the TES Scotland this week that he was encouraged by the “tremendous support” he had received. He had allowed his nomination to go forward only because he believed that he could help unite the faculty. In October a report charting the way ahead was rejected by 61 lecturers out of 71 at a faculty meeting. They said that it ignored issues of mismanagement.

Willis Pickard