He has collaborated on, as joint editor and contributor to, a book on HE governance Governing Higher Education Today, International Perspectives (Routledge May 2019).
John has carried out reviews of governance arrangements at five institutions in the UK (DMU, Ulster, Aston, Churchill College and Bath Spa) and reviewed the effectiveness of governing bodies’ oversight of academic quality as part of a Leadership Foundation review for HEFCE.
He has also carried out projects on university autonomy, in Albania, Pakistan and Brazil sponsored by the British Council. He has a comprehensive understanding of audit and review having been an internal auditor (in local authorities), an external auditor (with the Audit Commission), an audit regulator (at HEFCE), oversight of an Audit Committee (at UWE) and is currently a chair of an Audit Committee (in the NHS). He is a member of the Higher Education UK-wide Standing Committee for Quality Assessment and was for 4 years a Board member of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.