About Me

I’m Professor of Government Practice and Vice Dean of Humanities at the University of Manchester and a Visiting Professor of Further and Higher Education at the University of Wolverhampton. I’ve been President of the OECD’s Forum for Social Innovation – part of their Local Employment and Economic Development Programme (LEED) and an adviser at the IMF.

I chair the advisory board for LLAKES – Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies – an ESRC Research Centre at UCL’s Institute of Education and a member of HEFCE’S Quality, Accountability and Regulation Committee. I’m also a board member at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) and a trustee of the National Union of Students.

 

Before all of that I worked in think tanks and in government – at the DFES, Treasury, DIUS and DCLG. If you want a read about my time working in government, then here’s a link to a piece I wrote for the Times Higher Education:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.aspx?storyCode=2011549