Appointments to professorships are made by Council, acting on the advice of a Professorial Appointments Board.

Professors of Education are required to deliver an inaugural lecture, which may also be combined with a separate College lecture. Professors are expected to contribute to the academic work of The College in some way; this includes writing articles for The College publication Education Today, conducting and supervising research in areas of interest to The College, mentoring of candidates for the FCOT, assisting in academic work of The College generally and representing The College overseas wherever possible.

Professors of The College, who have achieved a great deal in their own field, feel that The College enables them to have an alternative platform from which they can usefully speak.

Our current Professors are as follows:

Professor David Hawker 

Professor David Hawker served as Director General for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills for the Welsh Assembly Government (2008-2010) and as Director General for Arms Length Body Reform in the Department of Education (2010-2011).  He now runs Hawker Associates, a strategic international education consultancy with clients in Russia, central Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as the UK.

Prior to joining the civil service in 2008, Professor Hawker was Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Children’s Services at Westminster City Council (2007-2008), following eight years (1999-2007) as Director of Education, then Director of Children’s Services in Brighton & Hove.  In Brighton & Hove he set up one of the first fully integrated Children’s Trusts in the country and served for two years as Chair of the Association of Directors of Education and Children’s Services.

From 1992-9 he worked for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and its predecessors, as Assistant Chief Executive in charge of the national school testing and assessment system 5-14, early years and curriculum support.

David started his career as a secondary modern languages teacher in the Midlands in the 1970s, before moving into examinations administration and local authority advisory work.
He has worked as an advisor to the OECD, the European Community, the World Bank and the British Council on educational systems development, and quality and evaluation issues.  He currently sits on the General Education Sub-Board for the Open Society Foundations (funded by George Soros), which sponsors education programmes in around 30 countries worldwide.

“Education Policy: What could England possibly learn from Wales? 

Professor Derek Bell 

 

Derek has extensive experience in teaching and education issues including teacher education, higher education, subject leadership in schools, research, project management and network development. 
He has taught in schools and higher education institutions and been involved in science education research and development, including the coordination of a major curriculum project. In addition he has undertaken a wide range of consultancies in the UK and overseas and is a member of several advisory / expert panels including the STEM High Level Strategy Group, National Co-ordinators Group for the National Network of Science Learning Centres, the WISE National Co-ordinating Committee and the Astra-Zeneca Science Education Forum. From 2002-2004 Derek was Chair of the Wellcome Trust Society Awards Panel. He is also a member of the Board of the Science Council, the Engineering Technology Board (ETB) and STEMNET. He was awarded his professorship by The College of Teachers in July 2007.

Professor Rosemary Sage

Professor Rosemary Sage is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist, Psychologist and teacher with experience in health and education fields. For the past 20 years she has worked in higher education both in London and Leicester and was made Professor of Communication in Education at Liverpool Hope University in 2007. She is also long-standing Visiting Professor at the Women’s University, Nara, Japan and has been Visiting Professor at the University of Havana.  Rosemary is a Trustee for both the Association for Speech Impaired Children and the Independent Panel for Education Advice; President of Human Communication International; Education Advisor to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists; Member of the Research Committee of the British Stammering Association and a Member of Sir Michael Rutter’s Advisory Committee on Language Research. 

“Does education tap only half our brain power? Unravelling standards in education”

Professor Anthony Seldon

Professor Anthony Seldon is a leading authority on contemporary British history and one of the country’s highest profile independent school headmasters. He became the 13th Master of Wellington College in January 2006, having been Headmaster of Brighton College since September 1997. 

He is also author or editor of over 25 books on contemporary history, politics and education including illustrated histories of Number 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office and biographies of John Major and Tony Blair. He has been historical consultant on the memoirs of several other former Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries.

After gaining an MA at Worcester College, Oxford, and a PhD at the London School of Economics, he qualified as a teacher at King’s College, London winning the top teaching prize in his year.  He also has an MBA.  

He founded, with Professor Peter Hennessy, the Institute of Contemporary British History, the internationally respected body whose aim is to promote research into, and the study of, British history since 1945.