Part-time appointments followed his retirement from Warwick. He was the founding Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2001-2009). He also chaired the government's Teacher Training Agency (TTA) and its successor body the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) from 2004-2010. The TTA/TDA was the body responsible for the initial and in-service training of teachers and other school staff in England. Its primary successes were to resolve teacher training recruitment at the time and to foster/develop the concept of the teaching assistant. He has also been a non-stipendiary visiting Professor in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford (2001-2019) and taught physiology to second year undergraduates. The teaching evaluations were pleasantly high. He was a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a decade from 2008, and is President of the Stratford Civic Society.