Smith's first academic post was as an Assistant Lecturer at the
University of Exeter from 1959 to 1960. He then became Research Officer for the
Acton Society Trust in 1960–2, a trust set up by the
Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust in the 1940s "to analyse the implications of the welfare state for liberty and the individual." In 1962, he became a Lecturer in Politics at the
University of Hull, where he would remain for the next five years. In 1967, Smith moved to
Queen Mary College at the
University of London, where he was to be based for the next 24 years. Initially a Lecturer and then a Senior Lecturer, he was appointed Professor in Political Studies in 1983. He also served as Head of Department in Politics from 1972 to 1985, and was Dean of Social Studies in 1979-82. By the mid-1980s, he was also playing an administrative role in the university as a whole - he was Pro-Principal in 1985–7, Senior Pro-Principal in 1987–9, and Senior Vice-Principal in 1989–91. Smith was an active member of the
Political Studies Association since the 1950s, and was its Chairman in 1988-9, Vice-President in 1989-91, and President in 1991-3. In 1991, Smith moved to Northern Ireland, to take up the appointment of
Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Ulster, which he held until 1999. As the university was Northern Ireland's largest employer, Smith was heavily involved in the
Northern Ireland peace process throughout the 1990s, taking a non-sectarian "outsider" role. ==Political activity==