This presentation examines the development of the ‘risk university’ and its diffusion as both an organizational and regulatory template in higher education systems. How appropriate is the concept of risk and risk theories for understanding contemporary universities? Are notions of uncertainty rather than risk more fruitful for higher education researchers?

Professor Roger King is Member, HE Commission & Inquiry Co-chair, and Co-Chair, HE Commission inquiry ‘Regulating the new landscape of higher education’.

Professor King is former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lincoln and a prominent commentator and academic. Alongside Lord Norton, he was co-chair of the Higher Education Commission’s inquiry into regulation of the new higher education landscape.

He is a Visiting Professor at the School of Management at the University of Bath, an Adjunct Professor at the Teaching and Education Development Institute at the University of Queensland, Australia and a Research Associate at the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has recently concluded a six-year period as Visiting Professor at the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI) at the Open University, and has previously been a Visiting Professor at the following Australian universities: Griffith, QUT, and Sunshine Coast. He has also been Visiting Research Fellow at the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Currently he is researching marketization, global risk governance, and regulation in higher education policymaking.