The Annual General Meeting for 2026 of the Council for the Defence of British Universities will take place online via Zoom on Wednesday 22 July at 3pm.  The meeting is open to members and non-members but only members have voting rights. Non-members are encouraged to fill out the membership application form on the website....Read More

We would like to wish all our members and subscribers a very Happy New Year!   One highlight of last year was the launch of our Code of Ethical University Governance, written by Professor Steven Jones, a member of our Executive Committee. Professor Jones launched the Code at a successful event at the House of...Read More

Summary  The CDBU Code of Ethical University Governance is underpinned by the principle that governing bodies have a substantive part to play in affirming higher education as a prized public asset. The Code encourages governors to see themselves as ambassadors for their sector, promoting the university to everyone in society and providing reassurance that income...Read More

Since the Labour party were elected in early July to form the UK Government, I have been eagerly awaiting announcements of plans to try and fix the crisis facing British universities. Having spent the last five years researching a PhD thesis at the University of Essex which examined the relationship between political narratives of social...Read More

The Council for the Defence of British Universities (CDBU) was established at Oxford in 2012 by Sir Keith Thomas. He worked tirelessly to recruit famous names from culture and science, law and the media, as well as academe, and set up an organisational infrastructure in double quick time. Government was instituting radical plans for HE...Read More

PRESS RELEASE: 08.02.24 In April 2022, The Council for the Defence of British Universities invited applications to undertake research into any aspect of higher education in the UK, including governance, policy, curricula developments, and staff and student welfare and wellbeing. Funding was awarded to three projects. We are pleased to announce that we will publish...Read More

Words by G.R Evans, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Theology, University of Cambridge and author of discussions of university governance and Histories of Oxford and Cambridge.   Unvisited information? Staff and students may not ask themselves how their university or other provider of their higher education is run until they encounter a difficulty.  In many years...Read More

Words by Matthew Smith,  joint runner up in the CDBU Essay Prize Competition 2022. I am a historian, but I’ve been spending the last few months playing the lottery.  Not a lottery that can put money in my bank account, but a lottery that can put money in my research account.  That’s right, the funding...Read More

Words by Lydia Dye-Stonebridge, joint runner up in the CDBU Essay Prize Competition 2022. I once worked for a large corporate, and they saw it fit to test my personality. The assessment plotted me against the Randian axes of dominance and compliance, influence and steadiness. My line of best fit demonstrated that while in work,...Read More

  The Council for the Defence of British Universities invites applications to undertake research into any aspect of higher education in the UK, including governance, policy, curricula developments, and staff and student welfare and wellbeing. Comparisons between Britain and other countries are especially welcome. Successful bids for up to £7,500 will explain the rationale and methodology of...Read More