 Alex Wilkie attended Aylesbury Grammar School and went on to gain his BSc in mathematics with first class honours from University College London in 1969, his MSc (in mathematical logic) from the University of London in 1970, and his PhD from the Bedford College, University of London in 1973 under the supervision of Wilfrid Hodges with a dissertation titled "Models of Number Theory".After his PhD he went on to an appointment as a lecturer in mathematics at Leicester University from 1972 to 1973, then a research fellow at the Open University from 1973 until 1978.He spent two periods as a junior lecturer in mathematics at Oxford University (1978–80 and 1981-2) with (1980–1) as a visiting assistant professor at Yale University.