Sir David Watson

Sir David Watson took office as the second Principal of Green Templeton College in October 2010.

He was previously Professor of Higher Education Management at the Institute of Education, University of London (2005-2010), Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brighton (1990-2005), and Dean and Deputy Director of Oxford Polytechnic (1981-90). He read history at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a Choral Exhibitioner and Open Scholar. He was a Thouron Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded his doctorate in intellectual history in 1975.

He has contributed widely to developments in UK higher education, including as a member of the Council for National Academic Awards (1977-1993), the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council (1988-92), and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (1992-96).

He was the elected chair of the Universities Association for Continuing Education between 1994 and 1998, and chaired the Longer Term Strategy Group of Universities UK between 1999 and 2005. 

He is President of the Society for Research into Higher Education, a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation, a Companion of the Institute of Management, and a National Teaching Fellow (2008).

He chaired the national Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, and co-authored its report Learning Through Life (2009). 

He was knighted in 1998 for services to higher education. In 2009 he received the Times Higher Education Lifetime Achievement Award.