 From 1966 to 1969 he read modern history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was tutored by Maurice Keen and farmed out for tutorials with Michael Wallace-Hadrill (at that time a Senior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford) and Peter Brown (at that time a research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford).Wormald's potential was subsequently recognised by both Merton and All Souls when those colleges awarded him, respectively, the Harmsworth Senior Scholarship and a seven-year Prize Fellowship.Wormald taught early medieval history at the University of Glasgow from 1974 to 1988, where his lectures drew huge enthusiasm from students.