Lindsay Paterson is Professor of Educational Policy at Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, where he teaches courses in educational policy and research methods. Most of his research is based on the statistical analysis of large-scale social surveys. His main substantive interests are in education, politics and culture. He has served on the ESRC Research Resources Board (2003-7), and was an adviser to the Scottish Parliament's Education, Culture and Sport Committee (2002-3). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.