Sir Chris Husbands is a British academic, educationist, university leader and public servant who has been Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University since January 2016.
He began his working life as a teacher in urban comprehensive high schools before his career in higher education. His academic expertise lies in education policy and improvement, and particularly in policy in relation to teachers and teaching in schools. His academic work has been disseminated in fifteen books and over four hundred conference presentations and papers. He chaired the independent Skills Taskforce on UK vocational education and training policy between 2012 and 2014 and was a member of the examining the future of schools policy in England. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2011, has been Visiting Professor in Global Education Policy at East China Normal University and is an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of University College London and of the City and Guilds of London Institute. His public service includes board memberships at the Training and Development Agency for Schools, Edexcel, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, Universities UK, Sheffield College and the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Board. In July 2016, he was appointed by the UK government to chair the Teaching Excellence Framework for UK higher education, and was appointed to a second term in 2018. In 2017 he became chair of the UK and became chair of in 2018. He was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education to chair the Doncaster Opportunity Area Board in 2017. He was knighted for services to higher education in the 2018 Birthday Honours.
Major Publications
2016 Policy Learning and Educational Change 2016 Voices in the air: making sense of policy and practice in education 2016 ‘Transforming urban schooling: lessons from London’, in Paul Chua, ed., Innovations in Educational Change 2016 ‘Leadership to transform outcomes in one deprived urban Local Authority’ in Toby Greany and Peter Earley, eds, School Leadership and Education System Reform 2016 ‘The individual and the social: making education matter for all’, in Sally Greengross, ed, Remaking the welfare state 2016 ‘The tragedy of the commons and teacher education’, in Jonathan Simons, ed., T 2015 Didáctica de la historia en Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato 2015 ‘The skills deficits’, in Anthony Mann and Prue Huddleston, eds, How should our schools respond to the demands of the twenty first century labour market? Eight perspectives, 2015 ‘Lessons from London: what can London Challenge tell us about urban school reform’, in D Woods and T Brighouse, eds., The Story of London Challenge 2013 ' London Borough of Tower Hamlets 2013 , Pearson/RSA 2012 ' 2012 Teaching and learning in the twenty-first century: what is an Institute of Education for? Inaugural directorial lecture, Institute of Education 2012 ‘Teaching and the tail’, in Marshall, P., ed., The tail: radical solutions for transforming education, London, Centre Forum 2012 ‘Using assessment data to support pupil achievement’ in V. Brooks et al., ed Preparing to Teach in Secondary Schools: a student teacher’s guide to professional issues in secondary education 2012 ‘Models of the curriculum’ in V. Brooks et al., eds, Preparing to Teach in Secondary Schools: a student teacher’s guide to professional issues in secondary education 2011 Learning History, Teaching History: curriculum, pedagogy and inclusion 11-18 2003 Understanding History Teaching 2001 The Performing School: Managing, Teaching and Learning in a Performance Culture 2000 What is History Teaching? Language, Ideas and Meaning in Learning about the Past 1998 Professional Learning: History Teachers in the Making 1996 What Is History Teaching? Language, Ideas and Meaning in Learning about the Past 1996 Consorting and collaborating in the educational market place: developing new relationships in schools and higher education
Personal life
He married Nicola Owen-Jones and has four daughters.
