Gordon Marshall, who has led the institution for about nine years, is leaving to take up the post of director of the Leverhulme Trust, the university announced today.
He will remain in post until September, and Reading said the process to find a replacement was already under way.
Christopher Fisher, president of the university’s council, said: “On behalf of the university, I would like to record our enormous gratitude to Gordon Marshall for his energy, leadership and integrity over the past nine years and to wish him well for the future.
“At a time of considerable change for the higher education sector, with a new funding model for universities, a concentration of research funding and an increasingly global approach to teaching and research, Professor Marshall has helped to forge a university with an assured future. Our research outputs do credit to the UK sector, our current students consistently rate us highly, and there is strong demand from prospective students to study on our programmes.”
Mr Fisher added: “Gordon will leave a university that is making a major contribution to the knowledge, health and well-being of the UK and significant parts of the wider world.
“The process to find a successor of equal calibre is already under way. He or she will have a lot to live up to.”