 In 2003 the Master of the Dominican Order conferred on Nichols the degree of Master of Sacred Theology.From Rome he moved back to England and to Cambridge, where he began as Assistant Catholic Chaplain, then as an Affiliated University Lecturer (1998) as Prior of St Michael's for two terms of office between 1998 and 2004, and again for a third term from 2013.Nichols began his academic work in the Russian theological tradition and has written on many figures including Sergei Bulgakov.