David Eastwood, Birmingham University
Question Time 

19 January 2016

Speaker:

Professor Sir David Eastwood became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham in April 2009. Previously, he was Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), a post he had held since September 2006. Former posts also included Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, and Chief Executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

He held a chair in Modern History at the University of Wales, Swansea, where he was also a Head of Department, Dean, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. While at Swansea he co-founded the National Centre for Public Policy.

Sir David has served on numerous national bodies and committees, including as a member of the Research Support Libraries Group 2002-2003, the Roberts Review of the Research Assessment Exercise, the Tomlinson Group on 14-19 Education 2003-2004, the Councils of the John Innes Centre and the Sainsbury Laboratory, and the Board of the Quality Assurance Agency. He has chaired the 1994 Group of Universities, UUK’s Longer Term Strategy Group, the Association of the Universities of the East of England, and Supporting Professionalism in Admissions (SPA). He also chaired the Westminster Education Commission in 2009. More recently he was a member of the Government’s Independent Review Panel looking at Higher Education Funding and Student Finance, and he now serves as an International Member of the Hong Kong University Grants Committee.

He is currently Chair of Universitas 21, Chair of the Russell Group, Chair of Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a Board Member of Universities UK (UUK) and INTO University Partnerships, a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and a member of the Advisory Board of the Higher Education Policy Institute. He is also a member of the Advisory Group, led by Sir Paul Nurse, reviewing UK Research Councils.

The David Watson Memorial Lecture Series, 2015 – 2016, What Should Universities Be?