Anthony Forster (political scientist)


Anthony William Forster, FAcSS is a British political scientist and former British Army officer. He is the current vice-chancellor of the University of Essex and was previously deputy vice-chancellor of Durham University.

Early life and education

Forster was born on 19 May 1964 in Chiseldon, Wiltshire, England. Attended Denstone College in Staffordshire 1977 to 1982. Sponsored by the military in the form of an undergraduate cadetship, he graduated from the University of Hull in 1985 with a BA in politics.
After completing six years of military service, he studied Politics at St Antony's College, Oxford from 1991, obtaining his MPhil in 1993. He remained at Oxford to undertake further research in European politics, and completed his DPhil in 1996 at St Hugh's College, Oxford.

Career

Military service

From 1985 to 1991 Forster served as an officer in the British Army. On 2 September 1983, he was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport as a second lieutenant . After graduating he began his full-time military career as a second lieutenant in July 1985. His commission was confirmed and he was promoted to lieutenant on 7 July 1985 with seniority from 9 April 1985. He was promoted to captain on 9 April 1989. He left the British Army on 1 May 1991 and was appointed to the reserve of officers.
His military service came at the end of the Cold War, and he completed several postings to West Germany. In 1990 he was deployed to Namibia as a British military adviser to the government of the newly independent nation.

Academic career

Forster began his academic career while a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford. He was a lecturer at St Hilda's College, Oxford from 1985 to 1986. He later held positions at the University of Nottingham, King's College, London and the University of Bristol. From 2006 he worked at Durham University and from 2011 held the positions of deputy vice-chancellor and honorary professor of politics.
In 2012 Forster was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the University of Essex, where he has presided over reforms that seek to emphasize the university's commitment to education and teaching, as well as to research, alongside a strategic goal of increasing student numbers by 50 percent by 2019. He was criticized in 2014 by author and academic Marina Warner, after she resigned from the university, who argued that decision-making power at Essex had been handed to administrators at the expense of academics.

D-Notice system review

In 2014 Jon Thompson, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, asked Forster to chair an independent review to examine the efficacy of the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee and DA-Notice system. The review was completed in 2015.

Other appointments

Forster is a board member of the Equality Challenge Unit, a board member of the Higher Education Academy and a member of South East Local Enterprise Partnership's strategic board. Previously Forster was a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England Teaching and Student Opportunity Strategic Advisory Committee, board member and trustee for animal welfare charity Blue Cross and board member and director at the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

Honours

In 2009, Forster was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Selected works