HEA Open and Distance Learning Policy Study
Panel Member Biographies
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Professor Malcolm Skilbeck (Chair)
pg. 1

Mr. Seamus Fox
pg. 2
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Professor Áine Hyland
pg. 3
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Dr. Barbara Spronk
pg. 4
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Dr. Deirdre Stritch
pg. 5
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Dr. Richard Thorn
pg. 6
Professor Malcolm Skilbeck (Chair)
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Emeritus Professor; B.A. Hons University of Sydney; M.A. University of
Illinois; Acad. Dip. Ed. and Ph.D. University of London, Hon. D. Litt National
Univ. Ireland. Fellow of Australian Academy of Social Sciences.
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Professor and Dean of Education, University of Ulster (1971 to 1975)
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Foundation Director of the Australian Curriculum Development Centre (1975
to 1981)
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Professor of Curriculum Studies at the Institute of Education, University of
London (1981 to 1985); concurrently, Director of Studies of the Schools
Council for Curriculum and Examinations for England and Wales
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Vice Chancellor and President, Deakin University in Australia (1986 to 1991)
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Deputy Director for Education of the Directorate for Education, Employment,
Labour and Social Affairs in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) in Paris (1991 to 1998).
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Director, Connell Skilbeck Pty Ltd, International Education Research and
Consultancy (1999 to present)
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His most recent work in tertiary education is the report of the team he led for
the OECD Review of Higher Education for the Albanian minority in
Macedonia.
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Other recent projects include co-authorship of Australian Country Background
Report for OECD study on Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective
Teachers (commissioned by Australian Department of Education, Science and
Training and available on DEST website); research and drafting role for DEST
in preparation of report of the Committee for the Review of Teaching and
Teacher Education published in 2003, as Australia's Teachers, Australia's
Future - Advancing Innovation, Science and Mathematics; Teachers for the
Future, a report for Australian Ministerial Committee MCEETYA on
Australian teachers in their first ten years in the profession; and a jointly
authored policy study for DEST on international students in Australian
schools.
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Select Publications: The University Challenged: A Review of International
Trends and Issues with Particular Relevance to Ireland (HEA,2002)
Malcolm Skilbeck (text author) (2000) Education for All - Global Synthesis;
Access and Equity in Higher Education: An International Perspective on
Issues
and
Strategies
(HEA,
2000)
Malcolm Skilbeck (principal author) Redefining Tertiary Education.
(1998,OECD)
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Mr. Seamus Fox
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Seamus Fox is a lecturer in Oscail, Faculty of Distance Education, Dublin City
University.
He has over twenty years of experience in co-ordinating, planning and
managing open and distance learning (ODL) programmes.
Since 2002, he has been Academic Co-ordinator of Oscail’s BSc in
Information Technology programme where he has overseen its transformation
from a traditional distance education programme into an online programme.
He has directed or participated in projects funded by a number of European
programmes such as COMETT, DELTA, Euroform, Socrates and Minerva as
well as projects funded by the HEA.
He has carried out extensive research on a number of areas related to ODL
including the applications of learning technologies in distance education;
quality assurance of teaching and learning in ODL; online assessment
strategies; cost-effectiveness in the delivery of distance education and the
application of learning theories to online teaching.
He has published reports and papers and delivered a large number of
workshops in ODL.
In 1993, along with colleagues from the European Association for Distance
Teaching Universities, he carried out one of the first cost comparison studies
on the use of a variety of learning technologies in ODL.
In 2002, he carried out an in-depth review of the rationales for the use of
learning technologies in higher education and has followed this line of
research for the last six years.
He has acted as an expert on a number of internal and external committees
including the Irish Universities Association’s New Forms of Learning
committee.
He holds an MSc from Lancaster University in Advanced Learning
Technology.
He is currently on secondment to the Office of the Deputy President in DCU
where he is developing a university wide strategy for embedding eLearning
across the University.
Selected Publications/Presentations:
Fox, Seamus (Forthcoming) Approaches to Online Teaching: Seeking Quality and
Efficiency Paper to be presented to 2008 EdTech Conference, Dundalk Institute of
Technology, May 2008
Kay MacKeogh and Seamus Fox (2008) Online and Distance Learning Workshop
Sligo Institute of Technology, April 2008
Fox, Seamus (2007) New Learning Technologies in Higher Distance Education: From
the Theoretical to the Practical. Published in Lionarakis, Antonis (Ed) Proceedings of
the 4th International Conference in Open and Distance Learning: Forms of
Democracy in Education, Athens, November 2007, pgs 222-233
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Professor Áine Hyland
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She is currently a member of the European Universities' Association
Institutional Evaluation Team and she also co-ordinates a network of HE
institutions involved in the U.S. based Carnegie Foundation's Institutional
Leadership project on Graduate Education.
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Vice-Chairperson of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social
Sciences.
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Former Professor of Education and Vice-President of University College
Cork.
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Appointed Head of the Education Department at UCC in 1993. She worked
previously as a secondary teacher and as Senior Lecturer in Education at
Carysfort College of Education.
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Former Director of a key research project on Multiple Intelligences,
Curriculum and Assessment in the Irish context.
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Involved in directing a major research project on Disadvantage and Early
School Leavers in Cork City, entitled ‘Bridging the Gap.’
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Chairperson of the Committee on Educational Disadvantage set up by the
Minister for Education and a member of the Dormant Accounts Disbursement
Board.
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Dr. Barbara Spronk
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Currently Visiting Graduate Professor, Athabasca University and consultant
for a number of agencies involved in education and development.
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Barbara Spronk holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Alberta
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She worked at Athabasca University for 22 years, in a variety of positions
including course tutor (19 courses) and course author (13 courses).
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She served as member and chair of a number of CIDA project selection
panels, and as a Governor of Frontier College, Canada's oldest literacy
organisation. In addition, she served for a decade as a member of the Board of
the Canadian Association of Distance Education (now the Canadian Network
for Innovation in Education), including a term as President.
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She served as executive director of the International Extension College (IEC)
for six years from 1996 to 2002. IEC was established in 1971; its aim to
establish and sustain educational initiatives in developing countries,
specifically in the area of open and distance learning.
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She has carried out consultancies in Bangladesh, Botswana, Chile, China,
Ecuador, Ghana, Guyana, Mozambique, Namibia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and
Zimbabwe. In addition, she taught on the MA in Distance Education that IEC
offers on behalf of the University of London, and in the summer school,
Distance Education for Development, that IEC offered annually with the
Institute of Education.
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Author or co-author of several books and numerous articles and book chapters
on gender and cross-cultural issues. Most recently editor of the special issue of
the International Review of Research on Distance and Open Learning on
distance education and the right to education in celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
4
Dr. Deirdre Stritch
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Project Officer with the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI),
where she plays a key role in the maintenance and enabling of the
implementation of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) and
related policies and in enabling and promoting the recognition of international
qualifications.
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Areas of work in which Deirdre is currently involved include developing and
enhancing the qualifications recognition service of the Authority; contributing
to a study, co-ordinated by the NQAI, to assess the extent of implementation
and impact of the NFQ and related policies on access, transfer and
progression; and the establishment and co-ordination of a university sector
Framework Implementation Network aimed at deepening the implementation
of the NFQ within the university sector, primarily through the exchange of
experience and practice between members.
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Prior to joining the NQAI, Deirdre worked in the Policy and Planning Section
of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) where she contributed to policy
development and the management and delivery of projects informing the
higher education agenda.
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Previously, she was the researcher to the Royal Irish Academy’s policy report,
Advancing Humanities and Social Science Research in Ireland (2007) and
lectured in Greek archaeology at Trinity College Dublin.
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She undertook her doctorate in archaeological heritage-management policy in
Israel and the Republic of Cyprus with the Programme for Mediterranean and
Near Eastern Studies at Trinity College Dublin (2006).
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Dr. Richard Thorn
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President, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland since 2001.
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Chairperson of the Council of Directors of the Institutes of Technology for
2007.
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Academic background in environmental and hydrogeological sciences.
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A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin where he completed his PhD degree in
1984. He also holds an MA in Public Management from the Institute of Public
Administration.
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Previously Head of the Castlebar Campus of GMIT (1994-2001)
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He has served as Chairperson and on the board of numerous not-for-profit
organisations including Sligo General Hospital Research and Education
Foundation (Chairperson 2004 - 2007), Company Secretary to the Irish
Underwater Council (2001-2003) and Chairperson of the Council of Directors
of Institutes of Technology, Ireland (2007).
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He is a council member of the National Executive of IBEC (the Irish Business
and Employers Confederation). He was Sligo Chamber of Commerce's
Business Person of the Year in 2005.
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