Professor Andy Westwood

Career

Andy Westwood is an expert in further and higher education, science policy and local/regional economic development and has worked regularly as an adviser for the OECD, IMF and the EU and the House of Lords select committee on Economic Affairs and Digital Skills. He is a governor at NIESR and served as Vice Dean for Social Responsibility in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester. Andy has also worked in the UK government as a political and special adviser and civil servant in a variety of departments.

In May 2024, Andy was named Policy Director of The Productivity Institute to focus on the implementation of the Institute’s Productivity Agenda for the purpose of driving more effective policy making in the area of productivity, skills and innovation at national, regional and devolved nations level. He also joined the Institute’s Management Team and joined Alliance Manchester Business School as Professor in Public Policy, Government and Business.

Research project

• The UK Productivity-Governance Puzzle: Are the UK’s Governing Institutions Fit for Purpose in the 21st Century?

Research output

• Rebuilding local democracy: the accountability challenge in English devolution
• The Productivity Agenda
• Levelling Up the UK: If not the Conservatives, will Labour Learn the Lessons from Past Policy Failings?
• The Politics of Productivity: institutions, governance and policy
• Levelling Up, Local Growth and Productivity in England