Richard Smethurst

Richard Good Smethurst (born 17 January 1941) was Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, England.

In 1964, Smethurst was appointed Research Fellow at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In the following academic year (1965/66) he was simultaneously Fellow and Tutor in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and consultant to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization programme at the Oxford Institute of Commonwealth Studies. In 1967, he became a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford where he was also Tutor in Economics and University Lecturer in Economics until 1976.

Meanwhile, he was also part-time economic advisor to Her Majesty's Treasury 1969–71 and part-time policy advisor to the Prime Minister's Policy Unit 1975–76 (Harold Wilson's second term). From 1976 until 1986 he was Professorial Fellow at Worcester and Director of Oxford University Department for External Studies. In 1978 he had been appointed a part-time member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and in 1986 he became its Deputy Chairman. He held this position until 1989, when he returned to Oxford as Chairman of the General Board of the Faculties.