Richard Holmes has worked at colleges and universities in the United States, Nigeria and Malaysia, most recently at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). His work in Applied Linguistics has appeared in journals such as English for Specific Purposes, ITL international Journal of Applied Linguistics, Innovations in Education and Teaching International and the Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics.

He is now the writer of the blog University Ranking Watch and has worked on global university rankings with universities and organisations such as the International Ranking Expert Group, the International Network of Research Management Systems, and the International Visibility Project, Poland. He has spoken at academic conferences including Wuhan University, Ural Federal University, Qatar University, the University of Bologna, and Beijing University of Technology.