Peter Scott is Professor of Higher Education Studies at the Institute of Education University of London. He is also Chair of the Council of the University of Gloucestershire. From 1988 until 2010 he was Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University. Before that he was Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and a Professor of Education, at the University of Leeds. Previously he was Editor of (what was then) The Times Higher Education Supplement.

He was a member of the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England from 2000 until 2006. He has written the growth of mass higher education systems, the internationalisation of higher education, governance and management in universities and the development of new forms of knowledge production.