After publishing a series of papers in the area of Health Services quality, Mike Hart obtained his PhD in 1997 awarded by De Montfort University where he had been employed in the Leicester Business School. Whilst there, he wrote several suites of easily accessible statistical software which were bundled with best selling books of Quantitative Methods. He was also external examiner at three universities and undertook two periods of teaching abroad, one in Jakarta, Indonesia upon the De Montfort University MBA program and the other teaching (in Spanish) at the Complutense University in Madrid. He subsequently took up his position in 1997 as Professor of Business and Informatics in the University of Winchester. At Winchester, he was primarily responsible for the successful launch of a degree in Business and Management which continues to expand and to be well evaluated in national surveys. In 2001 in collaboration with Hampshire County Council he launched an innovative course (now a Foundation Degree) in Public Services Information Management, designed to fit the needs of para-information professionals employed in neighbouring local authorities. As well as leading a small but rapidly growing Business and Management Group, he also chaired the School Quality Committee. The Business Management group now ranks in the third decile of Business and Management provision (Guardian rankings, 2005)

Dr Rush has a special interest in quality management in HE. He was Chair of the Faculty Quality Committee from 2000-2003 with responsibility for programme monitoring, validation and review. The QAA Business and Management Subject Review report of February 2001 commented favourably on the quality processes implemented by the Business and Management Group. He was part of the team organising the successful bid from King Alfred's College, as it was then, for taught Degree Awarding Powers. He has extensive experience in HE as an academic developing, leading and delivering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at several universities. At Teesside and Portsmouth he was responsible for service provision as Head of Computer Services. He has also held headships of academic departments at two universities and external examinerships at three universities. His recent academic interests have encompassed the practical development of web related and object-oriented technologies, particularly for e-learning.