HEFCE Annual Conference 2009

David Ward

David Ward was born in Manchester and received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Leeds. He earned a Fulbright Travel award to the United States and received a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1963. He became a U.S. citizen in 1976.

David Ward's UW-Madison faculty career spanned more than 30 years. He held a variety of senior posts before being named Chancellor in 1993, a post which he held until 2001 when he moved on to become president of the American Council on Education (ACE). An independent, non-profit association, ACE represents higher education before Congress and federal agencies; and works to ensure quality education on the nation's campuses and equal educational opportunity for all U.S. citizens.

As a member of the National Commission on the Future of Higher Education from 2006 David Ward was deeply engaged in discussions that shaped the panel's final report. On the international stage, David Ward has served as a visiting professor at the Australian National University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at University College, London.

John Denham MP
Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills

John Denham's career before he became a Member of Parliament included working at the British Council, War on Want, Christian Aid, Oxfam and other development agencies. This followed a period as president of the Students Union at Southampton University. John has served as MP for Southampton Itchen since 1992. Prior to being elected to Parliament John served as a Councillor, first at Hampshire County Council and then at Southampton City Council.

John's Commons career has included a period as Opposition Spokesperson for Social Security, and in government he has held a number of appointments as Under-Secretary and Minister of State. In June 2007, John was appointed by the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown to serve as Secretary of State to the newly formed Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), with overall responsibility for the Department.

John Denham is a Privy Counsellor.

Professor Colin Riordan
Vice-Chancellor, University of Essex

Colin Riordan moved to Essex from Newcastle University, where he had been Pro Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences since August 2005.

Previously he served as the Dean of Postgraduate Studies for the faculty from 2004 to 2005, and Head of the School of Modern Languages from 2001 to 2004. He also served as Head of German and Director of Research for the School of Modern Languages. Before joining Newcastle University, he taught at Swansea University and Julius-Maximilians Universität-Würzburg in Germany.

Professor Riordan has published widely on post-war German literature and culture, including editing books on the writers Jurek Becker, Uwe Johnson and Peter Schneider.

Ella Ritchie
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Newcastle University

Ella Ritchie was educated at Lancaster University, the London School of Economics (LSE), and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. She has been Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) at Newcastle University since 2004 and was previously Postgraduate Dean in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2008 she took over chairing the 'Rugby Team' - the UK group responsible for monitoring the impact of doctoral skills development. She has also played a key role in the development of the doctoral cycle of the Bologna process and was co-ordinator of the Quality Network of the European University Association Doctoral Programme project. She has advised the UK Government on the Bologna Process and is a frequent contributor to debates across the EU on higher education. She was a member of the UK QAA Framework for Higher Education Qualifications Advisory Group. She is also a member of the HEFCE Strategic Committee for Teaching, Quality and the Student Experience. As Pro Vice-Chancellor at Newcastle University Ella has responsibility for Teaching and Learning, the student experience, the skills and employability agenda and internationalisation of the curriculum. She is also Chair of Newcastle University's Diversity Committee.

Professor Janet Beer
Vice Chancellor, Oxford Brookes University

Janet Beer is a graduate of Reading and Warwick Universities, and studied at Yale University in the US, where she held a Fellowship. She held positions at Warwick and Roehampton before joining Manchester Metropolitan University in 1998, and worked for the Inner London Education Authority between 1983 and 1989.

Janet was a special adviser on higher education to the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills from 2000 to 2007, is a member of the board of the Higher Education Academy and chair of its Academic Council, serves on the advisory board of the Higher Education Policy Institute, and the boards of the Equality Challenge Unit and Higher Education South East.

Gill Ball
Director of Finance, University of Birmingham

As Director of Finance, Gill Ball is responsible for the short- and long-term financial planning and security of the one of the largest institutions in the sector. She advises the vice-chancellor, SPRC and Council on financial strategy and monitoring the university's achievements against that strategy.

Gill was Secretary to the British Universities Finance Directors Group from 2002 to 2005, has contributed to national groups on costing and pricing, participated in a number of HEFCE working groups and has given extensive support to the Leadership Foundation in delivering financial training for senior staff and governors.

She is immediate past President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the largest global accountancy body. This role has given her a valuable insight into governance from the non-executive perspective to contrast with the management responsibilities to governors in Birmingham.

Bahram Bekhradnia
Director, Higher Education Policy Institute

In November 2002 Bahram Bekhradnia established, and is the first director of, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). The role of HEPI is to identify long-term policy issues in higher education, together with the research and other evidence required to inform them, and to bring these to the attention of policy makers, with the aim of ensuring that policy is better informed by evidence than has often been the case in the past.

Previously, Bahram had been Director of Policy of HEFCE since its formation in 1992, where he oversaw the allocation of government grant to universities in England. In this role he was at the heart of most of the key policy developments affecting higher education during the 1990s. Before joining HEFCE he spent his career in the Department of Education and Science (as it then was), where he was latterly Head of the Teacher Supply Division.

He is a visiting Professorial Fellow of the University of London Institute of Education, and has recently been appointed Special Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills.

Geoffrey Crossick
Warden, Goldsmiths, University of London

A historian specialising in the social history of Britain and continental Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Geoffrey Crossick began his career as Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After a short period at the University of Hull, he moved to the University of Essex where he progressed to the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Development). He joined Goldsmiths after nearly three years as Chief Executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Board, leading it through to its establishment as a full Arts and Humanities Research Council in April 2005.

Geoffrey Crossick is a member of the HEFCE Enterprise and Skills Committee and the Board of UCEA, the university employers' association. He is a member of the Board of Universities UK, chair of its Longer-Term Strategy Group and a member of its Research Policy Committee. He is also a member of the British Library Advisory Council, the Council of the Royal College of Music, and the governing board of the Courtauld Institute. He is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and a member of its board of trustees. Geoffrey Crossick is an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.