Ward graduated from
Middlesex University with a
BA in economics and geography in 1991. The following year, he completed an
MA in transport economics at the
University of Leeds. He was awarded a second MA (in social research methods) by the
University of Manchester in 1995, where he also carried out doctoral studies supported by an
ESRC studentship; his
PhD was awarded in 1998. Between 1992 and 1994, Ward was a research assistant at the
University of Birmingham's Department of Economics. From 1997 to 2000, he was a research associate at the University of Manchester, where he was appointed
Lecturer in Human Geography in 2000. He was promoted to a senior lectureship in 2003 and to a
readership in 2005, before being appointed Professor of Human Geography in 2007. == Publications ==