James Noble-Rogers was Executive Director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) from 2004 until his retirement in April 2026. During this time he helped lead UCET and its member organisations (the HEIs involved in teacher education and education research) through challenging times, including the Covid Pandemic, the teacher education reforms instigated by Michael Gove and the existential threat posed to the sector by the Market Review of Initial Teacher Education in the early 2020s. He negotiated with government and others on behalf of the sector, developed a range of new strategic alliances and helped to mitigate, and to an extent reverse, some of the damage caused by misguided and ill-informed government reforms. He performed similar roles on behalf of UCET members in other parts of the UK, particular in Northern Ireland and Wales. Prior to his employment at UCET he worked on a number of policy areas for the Department for Education and the Teacher Training Agency, and for four years he was Head of Governance at the Royal National Institute of the Blind. He has a Batchelors degree in Humanities from Hatfield Polytechnic, an MA in Philosophy from the University of Nottingham and a Postgraduate Diploma in Voluntary Sector Management (with distinction) from City University. He also has an Honorary Fellowship from Wolverhampton University, an Honorary Masters degree in Education from the University of Hertfordshire and an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University. In 2026 he was awarded the Darrell Bloom Award for outstanding contribution to partnerships in teacher education by the International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET). He was married for 18 happy years to Bea Noble-Rogers until her death in August 2026