Anthony Forster (political scientist)
Anthony William Forster, FRSA FAcSS FHEA is a British political scientist and former British Army officer. He is a former 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, with the service number of 517900. 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 but left the British Army on 1 May 1991, then being 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.
In August 2023, Forster announced his intention to retire in July 2024. In November 2024, shortly after he stepped down, the University announced they would cut 200 jobs due to a £29 million 'shortfall', blaming government decisions on funding an internationals students.