People

Jamaican Education Minister joins COL Board

His Excellency, the Rt. Hon. Donald C. McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary-General, has announced that The Honourable Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Education and Culture, Jamaica, has joined COL's Board of Governors as the member representing the Caribbean region. The appointment is made on the advice of Commonwealth Ministers of Education. He succeeds Dr. Marlene Hamilton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Administration and Special Initiatives, University of the West Indies, who served on the Board for several years.

Also stepping down from the Board after several years of service is Mrs. Esi Sutherland-Addy, Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.

Mr. S.K. Tripathi, newly appointed Secretary, Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Government of India, succeeds former Education Secretary, Mr. M.K. Kaw, as India's representative on COL's Board.

Dr. Tara de Mel, who joined COL's Board in January 2002 as the representative for the Asian Region, has been appointed Adviser to Her Excellency Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, President of Sri Lanka. Dr. de Mel was formerly Secretary to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and also Vice Chairperson (Policy) of the National Education Commission of Sri Lanka.

COL's Board of Governors provides policy direction for the agency. Special appreciation is expressed for the years of dedication provided by Dr. Hamilton (from 1996), Mr. Kaw (from 1999) and Mrs. Sutherland-Addy (from 1996). Service on the Board is non-remunerative.  www.col.org/board

Field staff

COL in the Pacific: Ms. Jenny Williams, Course Design Portfolio Manager at The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand (TOPNZ), has been engaged on a one-year secondment to COL as project manager for COL technical/vocational education and training (TVET) programmes in the Pacific. Ms. Williams will continue to be based at TOPNZ and function with support from the host institution.

COL in Africa: Former Pro-Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU, India), Professor Asha S. Kanwar, has accepted a one-year secondment from IGNOU to the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa. As COL/UNESCO Co-ordinator, Professor Kanwar will work on several projects that are included in a newly formed joint COL/UNESCO programme for Sub-Saharan Africa. (See "From COL's partners" section above)

In memoriam____________________________

Dr. Judith Calder, 1943 - 2002
On March 31 2002, many of us involved in open and distance learning lost a good friend and a respected colleague. Her associates at the Open University will miss her scholarly contributions, recently recognised by her promotion to full professorship. The many students with whom she worked will miss the stimulus of her knowledge and experience, and her supportive mentorship. Those who benefited from her interest in, and commitment to, international education will miss the vision and cultural sensitivity she brought to the projects she was involved with.

Judith Calder was one of the first to research the interaction of adult learners with open and distance learning systems. She explored the often-contradictory nature of short-term and long-term goals for the learner and the providing institutions and other stakeholders. Recently, she assisted COL as the evaluator and member of the Project Advisory Panel for the Technology and Literacy Project, the evaluator for the Writing Effectively for UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) course and a chapter author in COL's soon-to-be-published book, Skills Development through Distance Education (Perspectives in Distance Education series).

I expect that everyone who worked with Judith in any of these contexts had the sense of a "special" relationship. She had that quality of making one feel that your project was particularly interesting, that she was learning more than she was teaching, and that every member of a team had important contributions to make. Remarkably, she was able to do that without compromising her commitment to the concepts of validity and reliability and the expectation that arguments would be supported with evidence. Those of us associated with The Commonwealth of Learning knew her best in the context of international education - most often in connection with projects in the developing world where she seemed particularly comfortable. To the people in villages she was "Dr. Judith", surrounded by people that wanted to talk and show her their accomplishments. To us she was the consummate "pro" - the sort of person who seemed particularly able to see the good in people and the opportunity in chaos. We all grieve her passing - and celebrate her life!

GLEN FARRELL
COL Senior Consultant and
former President of the Open Learning Agency of British Columbia

Lord Young of Dartington, 1915- 2002
Michel Young brought the world's attention to and engendered a new respect for open learning. His creative mind spurred a government to think differently about education, its purpose, value and importance not for a few but for a whole nation and through that reflection consider methods of delivering education to people in a way that would enable all to have access to it. When historians look back to our century, Michael's open learning will stand out as the most outstanding and successful innovation in education in modern times.

Michael Young passed away peacefully surrounded by family on 14 January 2002. With his passing, a remarkable life of giving came to an end. He gave his wealth freely, he gave his time freely and he gave his intellect freely to those noble causes that all decent women and men of the world subscribe to. Though Michael's fame among distance educators is legendary I only met him in the mid-1990s. Despite his stature as a giant among social reformers Michael was the very epitome of humility and grace.

While those of us in the community of distance educators know Lord Young for his advocacy of open learning and founding force behind the National Extension College, the International Extension College, the British Open University and more recently the International Research Foundation for Open Learning (now affiliated with COL), his influence went far beyond education. He contributed extensively to British thinking on social policy as well as to the foundations of Britain's welfare state. He was a champion of citizens' rights as well as the consumer movement in Britain, pioneering the much read Consumer magazine, Which.

In his passing the world has been deprived of a great thinker and doer and, in the open learning community, a great champion.

GAJARAJ DHANARAJAN
President and CEO, The Commonwealth of Learning