Dr Andrew Beards, BA, MA, PhL, PhD (Calgary), PhD (Lateran)

Academic Director

With responsibility for overall governance and special responsibility for Theology and Philosophy.

As Academic Director Andrew has responsibility for the academic direction of the School, its organisation, quality and standards. He also has co-responsibility for the development and enhancement of existing and new programmes and with particular oversight of the theological and philosophical components of the programmes.   

Andrew pursued studies in philosophy and theology in Rome, the UK, Canada and the US. After a period of university lecturing in Canada and a post-doctoral fellowship in Boston, he returned in 1993 to the UK to take up teaching responsibilities at the theology consortium of Ushaw College, the Wesleyan centre and St John’s College, University of Durham. He has had over twenty years of experience in teaching at HE level, teaching undergraduates, masters and doctoral students.

Andrew has a doctorate from the University of Calgary, Canada and a Pontifical Doctorate from the Lateran University, Rome.  He is an internationally known scholar, having published articles in many academic journals; Dr Beards has also been a speaker at conferences in Europe and the US.

He is author of the following books: Objectivity and Historical Understanding (Ashgate: 1997); Method in Metaphysics: Lonergan and the Future of Analytical Philosophy ( University of Toronto Press, 2008); Insight and Analysis (Continuum, 2010); Philosophy the Quest for Truth and Meaning (Minn: Liturgical Press, 2010).