The CDBU was founded in November 2012. We have a long and distinguished list of 66 founding members, which includes Nobel prize winners, members of the House of Lords, several former vice-chancellors and cabinet members, and many world-famous scientists and literary figures.
Click here to see the full list.
The day-to-day running of the CDBU is managed by an executive committee:
Professor Julian Preece (Chair) is Chair of German at Swansea University. He joined CDBU in 2012 in response to a founding commitment to promote smaller degree programmes, briefly known at that time as SIV’s (‘strategically important vulnerable subjects’). He has played a key advocacy role at the University Council for Languages (UCFL), where he was a vice-chair 2016-2020.
Dr Sean McMahon (Deputy Chair) is a Reader in Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. He is interested in microbial palaeobiology and the search for life on Mars. He has studied or conducted research at five other universities (Oxford, Aberdeen, Yale, Durham, and London).
David Wolton (Treasurer) is a publisher and long-term charity organiser.
Dr Carlos Azevedois a researcher at the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES). Previously, he was a visiting fellow at the Open University Business School, where he completed his PhD in 2022. His research focuses on marketised higher education systems and their impact on students’ discourses and practices. His monograph on students’ discourses and practices in marketised higher education systems will be published by SRHE/Routledge in 2026. His research interests also include student activism, academic freedom, and the public–private mix in higher education.
Professor Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, University College London Institute of Education, where he was Pro-Director and Dean. For some decades, he has been a leader in the development of the new field of the philosophy of higher education, is the inaugural President of the Philosophy of Higher Education Society and acts as a consultant.
Becca Bashford (Press Officer) is an Education Liaison Officer for the Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service.
Professor Susan Bruce is Professor of English at Keele. She has written on a range of topics, including utopias, photography, literature and memory, TV medical drama and the NHS, and Brexit. She was former Co-Chair of the Arts and Humanities Alliance and a former Chair of University English.
Christopher Cunninghamis a Research Assistant within the Department of Education at the University of Bath, and a longserving employee and active community member of the University of Essex. His research interests are broadly based around the philosophy and theory of higher education.
Professor Aneez Esmail is Emeritus Professor of General Practice at the University of Manchester where he has served on its Governing Body and Senate. He led the Campaign for Better Governance at the University with the aim of improving the accountability of its governing body and senate. He has held several senior roles in the NHS including as medical advisor to the Shipman Inquiry. He continues to work as an NHS GP.
Professor John Holmwood is professor emeritus at the University of Nottingham. He was president of the British Sociological Association in 2012-14. He was co-founder of the Campaign for the Public University in 2010 and has written widely on higher education, as well as on the Trojan Horse affair and the alleged plot to Islamise schools in Birmingham.
Professor Steven Jones is a higher education researcher at the University of Manchester, where he served as Head of the Manchester Institute of Education from 2020 to 2024. His primary research interests are university governance, leadership, and policy.
Professor Benedikt Löwe is a researcher connecting mathematics, computer science, philosophy and the social sciences. He is the Professor of mathematical logic and interdisciplinary applications of logic at the Universität Hamburg and is the chair-holder of the CIPSH chair ‘Diversity of Mathematical Research Cultures and Practices’. He is a member of several academies, a Fellow of the International Science Council, and the Vice President of the International Humanities Council (CIPSH)
Professor Anne Sheppard is professor emerita of ancient philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has twice served as head of classics at Royal Holloway and has also been an academic staff member of the college’s council and in that capacity participated in a review of the college’s statutes.
We also have a group of distinguished patrons:
Dr Rowan Williams (Chair) is a former Archbishop of Canterbury and recently retired as Master of Magdalene, Cambridge. He is also a poet and author of many scholarly works.
Dr Tim Horder is an Emeritus Fellow and former Senior Research Fellow in Medicine at Jesus College. He is also the co-editor of Oxford Magazine.
Professor Howard Hotson is Professor of Early Modern Intellectual History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Anne’s College. He chaired the planning committee for the CDBU and acted as the first chair of its Executive Committee.
Sir Peter Scott
Sir Keith Thomas is an Emeritus Fellow at the University of Oxford. He was a senior scholar of St. Antony’s (1955), a Prize Fellow of All Souls (1955-57), Fellow and Tutor of St John’s (1957-85), Reader (1978-85), ad hominem Professor (1986) and President of Corpus Christi (1986-2000). Elected FBA in 1979, he was President of the British Academy (1993-97).
David Wolton is a publisher and campaigner. He started the imprint Ithaca Press in 1973, specialising in academic and political studies of the Middle East. From 1985 to 1994, he was chairman of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Professor Emma Griffin is a Professor of Modern British History and Head of School at Queen Mary, University of London. She is the author of several books, and the President of the Royal Historical Society, 2020-24.
Professor Alison Wolf (Baroness Wolf of Dulwich) is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London, and sits as a cross-bench peer in the UK House of Lords. She specialises in the relationship between education and the economy.