The Duke of York has stood down as Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield with immediate effect.
A university spokesperson said Prince Andrew “has decided to step down immediately to allow the University to appoint a successor.”
The news was announced in an email to students, many of whom had been pressuring the prince to stand down from the honorary role.
Prince Andrew was appointed Chancellor in 2015 – a role he should have held for five years.
The university’s student called on the to resign from the role earlier this week, saying he is “‘not the sort of role model students should have”.
Student Tristan Smith led the campaign calling on the 59-year-old Prince to step down.
He told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: “I think that the behaviour that we’ve seen, disregarding the allegations even, the fact that we know he continued the friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after the conviction, and even stayed at his house of his own admission – he admitted to that in the interview – I don’t think that’s very good conduct really, I don’t think that should be representative of us.
“I think he needs to have taken a stand to show some integrity, and I haven’t seen that yet. It’s not the sort of role model I think students should have, it’s not the sort of person I think should be in that position, essentially of authority and of recognition and respect.
“It seems very unreasonable I think that we would value having students going out into the world with integrity, with morals, with upstanding good reputations, and then that not being reflected in our chancellor’s behaviour and his statements, which I found to be very upsetting, and which I did not see much accountability and much sympathy for the victims, regardless of what may or may not have happened.”
Following the news of the Duke’s resignation as Chancellor, a Student Union spokesperson said: “We know that students will welcome this decision, and the Students’ Union would like to offer our sympathy to the victims of Epstein and all those affected by sexual abuse across the world.”
