Robert Aitken (university administrator)

Sir Robert Stevenson Aitken (16 April 1901 – 10 April 1997) was a physician and university administrator from New Zealand, vice-chancellor of the University of Otago between 1948 and 1953 and of the University of Birmingham in England between 1953 and 1968.

Born in Wyndham on 16 April 1901, Aitken was educated at Mosgiel District High School and Gisborne High School. He went on to study medicine at the University of Otago, graduating MB ChB in 1922. He played representative field hockey for Otago in 1921 and 1922. In 1924, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and went to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he completed a DPhil in 1926. In 1929, Aitken married Margaret Kane, and the couple had three children.

In 1953, Aitken was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours.