Kealey occasionally writes pieces for the Daily Telegraph and is the author of several books on the economics of science.
He has written about how Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain's universities and schools as Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1970 to 1974,[9] and has suggested that a debate with him in 1985 helped to shape her views on the Nobel Prize and the role of the state in sponsoring science.
However, this theory has been challenged by a study which agrees with Kealey's criticism of the linear model but tries to support the value of state funding by the production of externalities.
[11] In February 2010, Kealey proposed the establishment of a new independent university, modelled on American liberal arts colleges, which would concentrate on undergraduate teaching rather than research.
Kealey believed that complaints about impersonal teaching and oversized classes at many traditional universities mean there would be strong demand for higher education with staff-student ratios similar to that provided by independent secondary schools.