Historian & Education Consultant

Andrew Foster is a well-qualified historian with over forty years experience in higher education as a student, researcher, teacher, historian, editor, supervisor, designer of degree programmes and manager of research and development. He has developed and led programmes for widening participation, for a taught postgraduate awards scheme, a foundation degree on local government management, a postgraduate degree in strategic management, and contributed to taught postgraduate programmes as diverse as Theology and Play Therapy.

Andrew is an historian of early modern English history, specialising in ecclesiastical history.  He has written articles on bishops, clergy, cathedrals, parishes and the part played by religious issues in the origins of the British Civil War.  He is currently working on a book on the ‘Dioceses of early modern England & Wales, c.1540-1700.’  He contributed several articles to the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Educated at the University of Kent at Canterbury and at Balliol College Oxford, where he was supervised by the famous Christopher Hill, Andrew is also active as a local and regional historian.  He has served as a Literary Director of the Sussex Record Society since 1985 and as such been involved in the production of over seventeen monographs.  He is currently President of the Chichester branch of the Historical Association.  Involved with various other local history societies, Andrew is always happy to give talks, run workshops and facilitate sessions for local groups.

Andrew worked for thirty years at what has now become the University of Chichester and was latterly its Director of Research.  In this capacity he co-ordinated a Postgraduate Awards scheme that eventually embraced over 16 MA routes and catered for over 1,000 students.  He also co-ordinated the efforts of supervisors and research students, running training courses, liaising with the University of Southampton, and representing the university on bodies like the UK Council for Graduate Education.

Andrew is an experienced supervisor and examiner of research students and projects.  For over 16 years he has run the Chichester Centre for Ecclesiastical Studies which has mounted annual conferences and occasional workshops.  He is currently supervising research students working on royal progresses and hospitality in the south east, the impact of the Long Reformation on Sussex churches, Catholics in Parliament, clergy wives and the impact of church policies on the parish communities of central and outer London.

Now a Visiting Fellow of the Universities of Southampton and Kent, Andrew is active in national professional bodies promoting the cause of History.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society – fairly recently elected a Vice-President – and as such chairs its Teaching Policy Committee.  He is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.  More recently he has been elected to the national council of the Historical Association where he will preside over a new committee formed to consider Public History in all its guises.