James Tooley
vice chancellor, University of Buckingham; author, The Beautiful Tree

James Tooley is vice-chancellor at the University of Buckingham, with previous academic appointments at the Universities of Oxford, Manchester and Newcastle. His ground-breaking research on low-cost private education in developing countries has won numerous awards, including a gold prize in the first International Finance Corporation/Financial Times Private Sector Development Competition, the Templeton Prize for Free Market Solutions to Poverty, and the IEA’s National Free Enterprise Award. His book based on this research, The Beautiful Tree (Penguin and Cato Institute), was a bestseller in India and won the Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Prize. His other books include Education: War and Peace and Liberty to Learn. His latest book, Really Good Schools: global lessons for high-caliber, low-cost education, was published by Independent Institute in April 2021.

Building on his research, Tooley has pioneered models of innovation in low-cost private education. He has co-founded chains of low-cost schools in Ghana (Omega Schools), India (Cadmus Education), Honduras (Cadmus Academies) and, most recently, in England (Independent Grammar Schools). He is also involved with large associations of low-cost private schools, including as Patron of the Association of Formidable Educational Development (Nigeria) and Chief Mentor of the National Independent Schools Alliance (India).

Follow James on Twitter: @james_tooley

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