British Columbia

Arvind Gupta, former UBC president, joins University of Toronto

The mystery over the future of former University of British Columbia president Arvind Gupta has been solved.

Gupta has resigned from UBC after just a year on the job

Former UBC president Arvind Gupta is joining University of Toronto as a distinguished visiting professor. (UBC)

The mystery over the future of former University of British Columbia president Arvind Gupta has been solved.

Gupta is returning to his alma mater after being appointed distinguished visiting professor in the University of Toronto's computer science department for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Gupta's abrupt resignation in August just a year into his five-year term as University of British Columbia's president took many by surprise. He said at the time he would return to his academic career as a computer science professor at the post-secondary institution.

"With U of T being an urban university and right downtown, there'll be lots of opportunities to build new kinds of links," Gupta said in a statement.

"The president's really talked a lot about making these sorts of connections. I'll be very interested to see how I can contribute."

Meanwhile UBC has seen a string of recent controversies since Gupta's resignation. 

The university is investigating claims a professor was intimidated over a blog post suggesting Gupta lost a "masculinity contest" with the school's leadership. John Montalbano then stepped down as chair of UBC's board of governors while maintaining he did not compromise a professor's academic freedom.

Martha Piper, who was UBC president from 1997 to 2006, has returned to the role on an interim basis while the university finds a permanent replacement.

With files from CBC