Woudhuysen was educated at St. Paul's School, London, and gained a DPhil degree from the University of Oxford in 1981. His thesis title was Leicester's literary patronage: A study of the English court, 1578–1582 and his supervisor was Katherine Duncan-Jones.[6] His first academic role was at Lincoln College as a Junior Research Fellow in English Literature in 1978 before he joined University College London.[7]
In 2010, Woudhuysen was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[8] Between 1995 and 2020 Woudhuysen served as a general editor for the third series of the Arden Shakespeare.[9]
^Baker, William. “The Passion for the Book and Bibliography." Suarez, Michael F., S.J., and H.R. Woudhuysen, Eds. The Oxford Companion to the Book. 2 Vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.1: Lxvi+653 Pp.; 2: Xi+654-1327 Pp. Illus. Cloth, Slipcase. $220 or £175. ( ISBN 978-0-19-860653-6).” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 2011: 407-413.
^Suarez, Michael Felix, H. R Woudhuysen, and Oxford University Press. The Book: A Global History. Oxford: University Press, 2013.
^Supple, Shannon K. “The Book: A Global History.” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage. Chicago: American Library Association, 2015.