A Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, Professor Mehdi has played a pivotal role in shaping academic programmes that address pressing global challenges. Nigel is a Departmental Lecturer at Oxford where he has led the economics stream of the MSc in Sustainable Urban Development since its inception. He was Course Director of the MSc programme between 2017 and 2022 and of the DPhil in Sustainable Urban Development between 2022 and 2025. His excellence in teaching was recognised with the OUSU Outstanding Tutor Award in 2017. He also contributes to the Oxford Software Engineering Programme and lectures in real estate economics and property technology at Oxford Brookes University. He was previously a Visting Fellow at the Spatial Economics Research Centre at the LSE and a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, Cambridge.
Since 2018, Professor Mehdi has served as Course Director for the UAE Artificial Intelligence Programme and now the for newly established Chief AI Officers Programme under the United Arab Emirates federal government, where he is Programme Director for the National UAE Artificial Intelligence Programme. Through these roles, he has supported the development of national capacity in AI leadership and digital transformation.
Nigel has a lifelong interest in higher and professional education, and has combined teaching with practice since he started work. His teaching and leadership are underpinned by a belief the transformational potential of education through cross-disciplinary collaboration and evidence-led practice.
He has spent the last fifteen years developing expertise in digital and distance education and is Director of Education & Learning at the Oxford Centre for Artificial Intelligence where he is responsible for overseeing course development and delivery of in-person and eLearning courses. He brings together insights from technology, economics, and sustainability and real estate to prepare the next generation of professionals to address the complex and evolving challenges of sustainable development in an increasingly digital world.
Professor Mehdi is a current member of IET Academic Accreditation Team. He was previously Chair of the RICS UK Education Standards Board, a member of the RICS Global Education Standards Board, and a member of the National Readers Panel for the Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education.
Nigel holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, an MA in Professional Education & Training from University College London, an MSc in Digital Education from the University of Edinburgh and an MEd from Cambridge. He has postgraduate qualifications in Software Engineering from Oxford and in Sustainable Development from the University of Sussex. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and the Chartered Institute of Management (FCMI).