Pursuit of Possibility

Professor Nigel Thrift is currently Chair of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management. Previously he was Executive Director of Schwarzman Scholars. Before that he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Oxford. He is Visiting Professor in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Professor at the University of Bristol. His research spans international finance; cities in their many manifestations; non-representational theory; affective politics; and the history of timekeeping.

• 1: Is that a ‘university’? I’m not surePart I: The research university2: So what is a ‘university’? Part 1: Architecture and academics3: So what is a ‘university’? Part 2: Students, parents and other constituenciesPart II: The contemporary British university system4: A new Robbins? Recent changes in British universities5: The hardy perennials6: The Australianisation of British higher education7: On vice- chancelloring – a footnotePart III: The research university of the future8: So what is a research university?9: Redesigning the research university