Advisory Council
Agora's Director and Board of Trustees are supported by an Advisory Council. These individuals do not sit as a formal committee, but volunteer their ideas and advice on areas of particular personal knowledge and interest.
Lord May of Oxford
Robert May is former President of the Royal Society (2000-2005). He holds a Professorship jointly in the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, and at Imperial College, London, and is a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. For the five-year period ending September 2000, he was Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, and Head of its Office of Science and Technology. He has been received numerous international awards for his research, including the Royal Swedish Academy of Science's Crafoord Prize in 1996, (which is intended to complement the Nobel Prizes, focusing on mathematics, earth and space sciences, and biosciences and ecology).
David Palfreyman
David Palfreyman is Bursar and Fellow of New College Oxford. He is also the Director of Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (OXCHEPS, www.oxcheps.new.ox.ac.uk). He has previously worked at the Universities of Liverpool and Warwick, and has written numerous articles on education management. David is a co-editor of the 15-volume Open University series, Managing Colleges and Universities and of the forthcoming 12 volume Routledge/Taylor Francis series Comparative International Higher Education. His other books include Oxford and the Decline of the Collegiate Tradition and How to Manage a Merger or Avoid One.
Dr David Pilsbury
David Pilsbury is Chief Executive of the Worldwide Universities Network, a partnership of 17 research-led universities from Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America. He was previously Head of Research Policy for the Higher Education Funding Council for England where he oversaw a fundamental reappraisal of research policy and the creation of the Arts and Humanities Research Board. Prior to this David was Assistant Director of Research and Development at the Cambridge University Hospital. He spent a number of years in strategic consultancy and investment banking after completing a D.Phil and postdoctoral research at Oxford University.
Professor Richard Schoch
Richard Schoch is Professor of the history of culture at Queen Mary, University of London, where he is also director of the Graduate School in Humanities and Social Sciences. His latest book is The Secrets of Happiness: Three Thousand Years of Searching for the Good Life and he is currently writing a book on leisure. His principal areas of research are Shakespeare in performance, theatre history and historiography, and cultural history. His books have been short-listed for the Theatre Book Prize and the Barnard Hewitt Award. His monograph Not Shakespeare was the only work in theatre history named an 'Outstanding Academic Title' in 2003 by the American Library Association.
Professor Michael Shattock
Michael Shattock is visiting professor and founding Joint Director of the MBA in Higher Education Management at the Institute of Education , University of London. He was formerly Registrar at the University of Warwick. He is an expert on the structure, governance and management of higher education and his books include Managing Successful Universities and Managing Good Governance in Higher Education. He is Editor of the journal 'Higher Education Management and Policy'.
Dr Barry Smith
Barry C Smith, a philosopher at Birkbeck, University of London, has his central interests in language and mind. His particular focus is on knowledge of language and its relation to other aspects of the mind. He sits on the council of The University of London and takes a keen interest in national higher education policy, particularly in the arts and humanities.
Professor Steve Smith
Steve Smith has been the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter since 2002. He is chair of the 1994 Group of smaller research intensive universities. Prior to joining Exeter he was Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) and Professor of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. During his 29-year academic career he has contributed to or written 13 books, nearly 100 academic papers and has given over 150 academic presentations in 22 countries. In 2001 he became only the second UK academic to be elected President of the International Studies Association in the USA. He was also the recipient of the Susan Strange Award of the International Studies Association in 1999 for the person who has most challenged the received wisdom in the profession.
Professor Graham B Spanier
Graham B. Spanier is President of the Pennsylvania State University in the United States. A national leader in higher education, Dr. Spanier has chaired the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, is co-chair of the Committee on Higher Education and the Entertainment Industry, served as chair of the Big Ten Conference Council of Presidents/Chancellors, and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Internet2. He is currently chair of the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board. Dr Spanier has written more than 100 scholarly publications, including 10 books. He is a family sociologist, demographer, and marriage and family therapist. He earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Lord Sutherland of Houndwood
Lord Sutherland of Houndwood is a crossbench member of the House of Lords and Provost at Gresham College. He was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 2002-2005 and also sat on the council of the British Academy during that period. He is a member of the Council for Science and Technology and of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee. He was Vice Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh from 1994-2002 and prior to this he was Vice Chancellor of the University of London.
Professor Eric Thomas
Eric Thomas has been Vice Chancellor of the University of Bristol since 2001. He studied Medicine at the University of Newcastle, and trained as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. In 1991 he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Southampton and became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Biological Sciences in 1998. He was a Consultant Gynaecologist from 1987 to 2001. Professor Thomas is Chair of the Worldwide Universities Network and of the Research Policy Committee of Universities UK.
Marc Jordan
Marc Jordan began his career in academia as an art historian, before moving into art publishing. He rose to become a leading figure in the sector, working for firms such as Phaidon Press and Acoustiguide Ltd. In the process, he has become an expert in entrepreneurship in creative industries, something he has sought to bring to his current role as Interim Director of the Contemporary Art Society. He is also involved with a number of public bodies, including the London Committee of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and sits on the Governing Council of the University of Exeter as a Non-Executive Director. He is a regular contributor to professional journals and the broadsheet press on cultural issues, and was recently elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.