The president of Columbia University has resigned after months of severe criticism of the way she handled campus protests over the war in Gaza.

Minouche Shafik said the period “has taken a considerable toll on my family” as she announced she will step down immediately, just weeks before the start of the new academic year.

She revealed that she will now take up a job in London with the Foreign Office.

In an email to staff and students on Wednesday, Baroness Shafik said the unrest at her university has been “a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community”.

She added: “Over the summer, I’ve been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”

Baroness Shafik, who is British-American, was appointed president of the prestigious US university in 2023.

The economics expert, 62, became the first woman to lead Columbia but her tenure was overshadowed by pro-Palestine protests on campus earlier this year.

Students barricaded themselves inside a building on the New York campus in April in protest at Israel’s war in Gaza.

Footage of some demonstrators smashing windows at the university’s historic Hamilton Hall caused anger and, despite protesters insisting their sit-in was peaceful, police were called to dismantle the occupation.

New York police officers carrying zip ties and riot shields stormed the building after being invited on to campus by Baroness Shafik, a move that was heavily criticised by staff and students.

She also appeared before Congress in April amid allegations that her university had not done enough to stamp out campus anti-Semitism. 

In a fraught hearing in Washington, DC, one Congress member accused Baroness Shafik of allowing Columbia to become “a hotbed of anti-Semitism and hatred”.

Earlier this week, three Columbia deans resigned after exchanging “anti-Semitic” text messages while Jewish speakers raised concerns about prejudice on campus.

Baroness Shafik, who was made a life peer in the House of Lords in 2020, said on Wednesday that she will return to Britain to work alongside David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, to review the Government’s approach to international development.

She said: “I am very pleased and appreciative that this will afford me the opportunity to return to work on fighting global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas of lifelong interest to me.

“It also enables me to return to the House of Lords to re-engage with the important legislative agenda put forth by the new UK government.”

Baroness Shafik has postgraduate degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford. She previously led the LSE and before that worked at the World Bank, where she rose through the ranks to become the bank’s youngest-ever vice president. 

She also worked at the Department for International Development, followed by a stint at the International Monetary Fund, and then in 2016 as deputy governor of the Bank of England before quitting after only two months in the role,

Her resignation comes after two other Ivy League presidents were forced to step down earlier this year.

Claudia Gay, of Harvard, and Liz Magill, of the University of Pennsylvania, left their posts as universities across the US were accused by Republicans of failing to protect their Jewish students from anti-Semitic incidents following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October.