Professor Floud, an economic historian, is President Emeritus of London Metropolitan University and acting Dean of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London. He is a former President of Universities UK and founder convenor of London Higher. He holds honorary degrees from City University and the University of Westminster and was knighted in 2005 for services to higher education. He has had a long involvement with European university affairs and was until December 2007 a Vice-President of the European University Association with particular responsibility for the Bologna process. He is now Chair of the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences of the European Science Foundation, which represents learned academies and research councils throughout Europe.