Appointed January 2004

Gareth Parry is Professor Emeritus at the University of Sheffield where he was Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education. The work of the Centre spanned historical, policy, organisational and cross-national studies of higher education. Supported by research council and national body grants, the focus of his own work has been on college systems and the movements for access and equity in post-secondary education. He is a leading authority on college higher education. He was an academic consultant to the Dearing inquiry into higher education in the United Kingdom and the Foster review of further education colleges in England. These involvements led, in turn, to studies of policy inquiry processes in country systems. He was a founder member of the ESRC Centre for Global Higher Education in which Sheffield was a partner institution. He is a former Co-Editor of Higher Education Quarterly. His current research is addressed to field formation in further education.