James Tooley

is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, having previously been Professor of Education Policy at Newcastle University. He is Director of the E.G. West Centre, which has as its area of focus the study of self-organizing systems as they relate to education. The benefits that private education can bring to low-income families in the developing world are a matter of central concern in much of his research, an account of which won in 2006 the gold prize in a competition sponsored by the International Finance Corporation and the Financial Times. He was the founding President of the Orient Global Foundation’s Education Fund and has also taken part in several other entrepreneurial ventures relating to the provision of low-cost private education in various parts of Asia and Africa. His book The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey into How the World’s Poorest People are Educating Themselves won the Sir Anthony Fisher International Memorial Award in 2010. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs and on the Academic Advisory Council of the Civitas Institute for the Study of Civil Society. He is also an Adjunct Scholar of the Cato Institute.