Rob Humphreys

Rob Humphreys was Director of The Open University in Wales from 2007 to 2017, having previously been Director of National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (Cymru) from 2005 until 2007.

Before that, he was a lecturer in Adult Education at Swansea University from 1993 to 2005, where his role included being the first co-ordinator of the award-winning Community University of the Valleys offering degree level provision in community settings in the former south Wales coalfield.

He has been appointed by Ministers to a number of Government appointed reviews of higher education fees and funding in Wales, including the two Rees Reviews, and the Diamond Review.

He has twice served as Specialist Advisor (on further and higher education) to the Welsh Affairs Committee of the House of Commons.

He was appointed by the Welsh Government to chair and independent review of governance in the further education sector, with the resultant report (the ‘Humphreys Review’) published in 2011.

He was the independent Chair – again appointed by the Welsh Government – of the merger process that led to a single pan-Wales Workers Educational Association (now Adult Learning Wales).

Rob is currently Chair of the Wales Advisory Committee of the British Council (with his second term of office coming to an end in June 2025) and was a member of the British Council’s Board from 2019 to 2021.

In recent years, he has represented the Global Wales partnership in discussions with ministers and senior higher education leaders in Vietnam in recent years, including contributing to a World Bank project advising the Vietnamese Government on higher education reform.

Rob is an elected fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and in 2016 was awarded a CBE for his work in adult education and services to the community.

Originally from Montgomeryshire, Rob was an unskilled labourer on leaving school before returning to education as a mature student at Ruskin College Oxford. He now lives in Swansea.