Autor: Mary Farrell

Mike studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Exeter College, Oxford, 1964-67, before completing his D.Phil, also at Oxford.  He taught in WEA and adult education while doing his Doctorate and, on its completion, moved to the then Polytechic of North London.  Beginning as a Lecturer in Politics in 1972, he was successively Senior Lecturer, Principal Lecturer and then, from 1992, Professor.  In 1978-79 he also spent a year at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques at the University of Bordeaux.  His main responsibilities were in the development of European Studies as a degree and research area and he was awarded a Jean Monnet Professorship in 1996 (subsequently as a Personal Chair).   In 1993 he became Director of the London European Research Centre (LERC), which held a series of international conferences and seminars and promoted critical, independent research on European integration.  Subsequently, LERC joined  ISET, when it was formed in 2002, and he became an associate member.   He was also involved in the promotion of European Studies nationally and internationally, particularly in the Standing Conference of Heads of European Studies and as Chair of the European Studies subject area in the Tuning Project (a pan-European initiative to implement the Bologna Process by understanding curricula and making them comparable).   In 2002 he also helped to promote a new undergraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, for which he was course leader from 2005 until 2009.