John is Emeritus Professor of Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University.  John founded and led the University’s Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) from 1977 to 1998. During this period, it was designated as a ‘centre of excellence’ by the Economic and Social Science Research Council, and subsequently  its  North East Regional Research Laboratory and a centre within its Programme on Information and Communications Technology (PICT).

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John was subsequently appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor until his retirement in 2008. In that role he had special responsibility for the University’s city and regional engagement and drew heavily on past and ongoing  CURDS research. Post retirement he returned to CURDS as the holder of a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship and was subsequently appointed a NESTA Felow where he wrote a Provocation Re-Inventing the Civic University

 

John’s work straddles the separate academic and policy fields of city and regional development, higher education and research and innovation. He was academic leader of the OECD programme Higher Education and Regions: Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged (2007) and drew on this in subsequent advice for the European Commission, linking services responsible for regions, for education and for research.

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This experience in policy and practise has informed his post-retirement research and publications. The University and the City (with Paul Vallance) (2013) looks into the university from outside.  The Civic University: The Policy and Leadership Challenges (with Ellen Hazelkorn, Louise Kempton and Paul Vallance) (2016) considers how universities can best manage engagement with civil society globally and locally.

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Both volumes informed the work of the UK’s Civic University Commission where John was appointed Vice Chair. The Commission’s   final report Truly Civic: Strengthening the connection between universities and their places led to his appointment as Professor of Universities and Cities in the University of Birmingham. John subsequently advised on the establishment of the Civic University Network hub which supports over 100 UK universities and is based at Sheffield Hallam University where he  is   Visiting Professor and special advisor to the Research England funded  National Civic Impact Accelerator Programme.​

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John is a graduate in geography from University College London, obtained his PhD form LSE and was a lecturer there from 1968 to 1975 prior to moving to Newcastle.  He was awarded an OBE in 1986 and the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1992, elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2004, an Honorary Fellow of University College London in 2010 and received the Sir Peter Hall award for distinguished services to the Regional Studies Association in 2011. In 2012 he was awarded The Lord Dearing Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Higher Education. In 2015 he was elected a Fellow of the Academia Europaea.

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In May 2018, Hasselt University’s rector, Prof. dr. Luc De Schepper, awarded John an honorary doctorate and highlighted his writings on the civic university as providing “… the best lens available for illuminating the symbiosis between higher education and society – and its tremendous force for progress and resilience.”