McGuire studied at UCL and Luton College of Higher Education, now the University of Bedfordshire[2] and has a PhD in Geology from University College London (1980).[3] He began lecturing in Geology at the West London Institute of Higher Education in the 1980s, former home of well known TV geologist Iain Stewart. He was then appointed Reader at Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education (now the University of Gloucestershire), and made it into the university sector in the 1990s when he was appointed Professor of Geohazards and Director of the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre at University College London.[4] The centre is funded by the insurance industry. He relinquished the Directorship in 2011.