Since October 2004, Frances Cairncross has been the head of Exeter College, Oxford. According to Frances, “this has given me a marvellous second career, after 30 years in journalism…mind you, those were pretty good, too - especially the last 20, when I worked at The Economist and wrote on everything from ‘The Bridget Jones Economy’ (how young singles boost inner city economies) to the economics of illegal drugs.”

From 1984 to 2004, Frances worked at The Economist, during which time her editorial responsibilities covered Britain, the environment, media and communications and management. She was economics correspondent of The Guardian from 1973-84, and prior to that spent periods on the financial staff of The Times, The Banker and The Observer. She has published a number of books on themes linked to her journalistic specialisms.

Frances holds honorary degrees from Cardiff, Trinity College Dublin, Kingston University, Glasgow, Birmingham, City and Loughborough Universities and an MA in Economics, Brown University, Rhode Island, in addition to her first degree from Oxford.

In 2004-05 Frances had an odd but fascinating voluntary role, as High Sheriff of Greater London. Frances used the year to try to build better links between employers and prisons, to help get more ex-prisoners into work. In 2005-06 she is also the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.