The internationally eminent Australian educationalist, Professor Malcolm Skilbeck, was the speaker at the autumn Universities Ireland council meeting on 17th September 2010 in Dublin.
Professor Skilbeck was Professor and Dean of Education at the University of Ulster from 1971 to 1975. In 1976 he took on the leadership of the newly founded Australian Curriculum Development Centre. From 1981 to 1983 he was Director of Studies at the Schools Council for Curriculum and Examinations for England and Wales, and from 1981 to 1985 he was Professor of Curriculum Studies at the Institute of Education at the University of London. He was Vice Chancellor of Deakin University in Australia from 1986 to 1991 before joining the OECD in Paris as Deputy Director for Education. A world authority on education, he is author of many influential books and reports, including School Based Curriculum Development (1985); The Vocational Quest (1994); Industry-University Partnerships in the Curriculum: Trends and Development in OECD Countries (1996) and The University Challenge: A Review of International Trends and Issues with particular relevance to Ireland (2002).
