Autor: Maria Slowey

Maria Slowey is a Professor in the School of Policy and Practice and Founding Director of the Higher Education Research Centre, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Ireland, where she also served as Vice President (Learning Innovation). She was previously Professor, Vice Dean Research and Founding Director of the Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning, Glasgow University. She has published extensively on the sociology of lifelong learning, widening access and social responsibility in higher education and appointed expert adviser to national and international bodies including the OECD, UNESCO, EU and the Scottish Parliament. An elected Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences, she has held many visiting positions (most recently, in Stanford and Nagoya Universities) and plays an active role in learned societies and editorial boards – commencing, in 2020, a five year term as Associate Editor, Studies in Higher Education. In 2015, she was inducted into the International Adult Education Hall of Fame.   Hans G. Schuetze holds a Doctoral Degree (Juris Doctor) in International and Comparative Public Law from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a Master’s Degree (LLM) from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked in Germany as a lawyer and legal policy expert at two levels of government. Between 1977 and 1986, he was a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) of the OECD, Paris. His main responsibilities included policies of higher education, vocational and professional education and training as well as lifelong learning. From 1991 to 2004, he was Professor of Higher Education Research and Policy, Department of Educational Studies and Centre for Policy Studies in Higher Education and Training, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (now Professor Emeritus). He taught part-time at the University of Oldenburg, Germany (2006–2017), and has been a Visiting Professor at universities in six countries; his last appointment was at the Renmin University of China (since 2017). He is a Member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Adult and Continuing Education and of Frontiers of Education in China (Springer).   Tanya Zubrzycki is a Research Assistant at the Higher Education Research Centre (HERC), Dublin City University. Her current research interests include lifelong learning, ageing populations and extended working lives. She is also a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, where she explores the changes associated with an academic profession in the Institutes of Technology in Ireland, in connection with the proposals for the establishment of technological universities. She holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and previously worked in the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Puerto Rico as part of a graduate studentship programme.