Vincent Carpentier - Biography#

Professor Vincent Carpentier is Professor of Higher Education and Society at University College London (Institute of Education) and a Visiting Professor at ENS Lyon. Previously he has been Reader in the History of Education, Senior Lecturer and Lecturer at UCL.

A French citizen Professor Carpentier was educated at the University of Grenoble - Bachelors degree (Licence Economie Appliqué) and a Master’s degree in macroeconomics. He then did a postgraduate diploma and PhD at the University of Montpellier. His thesis was on educational developments and economic performance in the United Kingdom in the 19th and 20th centuries. He came to the UK in 2000 and has made his academic career at the Institute of Education, University of London (now part of UCL).

The major themes of his research have been global inequalities and higher education, the academic workforce, the idea of the public good in higher education, the links between the development of higher education and the development of the economy, and comparative studies of higher education in the UK and France. He is the author of two books, 11 book chapters, 22 articles in peer-reviewed journals (including some of the most highly cited), seven research reports, two major datasets (including a historical dataset on UK higher education 1833-2019) and numerous professional and press articles.

Professor Carpentier has also received numerous research grants, including six from the Economic and Social Research Council. He has been active in the work of the Centre for Global Higher Education, now based at the University of Oxford. He serves on a number of editorial boards, including the London Review of Education and Teaching in Higher Education. He is also active in France, as an expert witness for the National Assembly’s Projet de Loi de Finances in 2024, and a member of the scientific committee of RESUP (French Network of Research in Higher Education). He has given a large number of keynotes and similar addresses in the UK, France and other European countries.