Professor Tom Schuller

Tom Schuller’s lifetime commitment has been to expanding learning opportunities for everyone, at any age and stage. He has worked as a researcher, teacher and senior manager in university in England and Scotland, and as a senior bureaucrat at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, one of the world’s most influential international think tanks.

Until recently Tom was director of Longview, a think tank promoting longitudinal and lifecourse research. From 2008-2010 he directed the independent Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, sponsored by the UK’s National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education. From 2003-2008 he was Head of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) at OECD in Paris, with responsibility for CERI’s projects relating to some 30 countries. Before that Tom was Dean of the Faculty of Continuing Education and Professor of Lifelong Learning at Birkbeck, University of London; and co-director of the Research Centre on the Wider Benefits of Learning.

Tom chairs the Governing Board of the Working Men’s College in London, Europe’s oldest adult education institute. He is writing a book on The Paula Principle – why working women tend to stick below their competence level. His current learning ambitions includes improving on the clarinet so he can make a better contribution to his jazz band; and learning Spanish.