John Daniel

Sir John Daniel is one of the world’s most eminent practitioners and thinkers in open, distance and technology mediated learning. He has helped to progress the international development agenda in education globally and has been a distinguished leader of universities and intergovernmental organisations in Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

He has held appointments at the Télé-université, Québec (Directeur des Études, 1973-77); Athabasca University, Alberta (Vice-President for Learning Services, 1978-80); Concordia University, Montreal (Vice-Rector, Academic, 1980-84); Laurentian University, Ontario (President, 1984-90); the UK Open University (Vice-Chancellor, 1990-2001); UNESCO, Paris (Assistant Director-General for Education, 2001-04); and the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver (President and CEO, 2004-2012).

His non-executive appointments have included the presidencies of the International Council for Open and Distance Education, the Canadian Association for Distance Education and the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. He also served as Vice-President of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. He is currently Education Master with the Beijing DeTao Masters Academy, China. From 2013 he will chair the International Board of the United World Colleges (UWC).

Among Sir John’s 330 publications are his books Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education (Kogan Page, 1996) and Mega-Schools, Technology and Teachers: Achieving Education for All (Routledge, 2010). The Chinese version of this book won the First Prize of the Chinese University Press Association for the best academic book.

A citizen of both Canada and the UK, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for services to higher education in 1994 and holds 31 honorary doctorates from universities in 17 countries.