Daily Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer is to a year-long sabbatical from the newspaper to undertake post-doctoral academic work.
Heffer, who is an associate editor with Telegraph Media Group, will leave for the course of 2010 after being invited by Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, to spend a year back in the academic world.
He will continue to contribute three weekly columns for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk.
According to TMG, he’ll continue to work on other projects for the company and return in “an enhanced role” in January 2011.
He said: “I am thrilled to have the opportunity, following the recent award by Cambridge University of a PhD, to go back to my college and involve myself in its life for a year.
“I am exceptionally grateful to TMG for their generosity and understanding in making this possible.
“I am looking forward to returning to the paper intellectually refreshed with this new and valuable experience behind me.”
Heffer follows former editor Will Lewis back into academia.
Lewis was last week promoted to managing director, digital, of TMG after returning from an autumn spent completing the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School to prepare him to head up a new “entrepreneurial unit” of the publishing business.
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