Professor Peter Scott – a recognised leader in open and distance learning – has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) commencing 8 January 2024. He most recently served as the President of a Canadian online institution, Athabasca University. He succeeds Professor Asha Kanwar who completes her term on 31 December 2023.
In making the announcement, His Excellency Danny Faure, Chair of the Board of Governors of COL commented, “I am delighted by the Board’s appointment of Professor Scott as President of our organisation. With his deep experience of open and distance learning and long career in open learning innovation, I expect that he will take COL to new heights of achievement in the years ahead. His personal attributes as a leader and international experience are invaluable.”
A graduate of the Universities of Sheffield and Warwick, UK, Peter Scott began his academic career as a researcher, and then lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He then moved to one of the world’s foremost online higher education institutions, The Open University, UK, where he spent 20 years in a range of positions, including as Director of an Artificial Intelligence and Education laboratory, The Knowledge Media Institute. In 2015, Professor Scott took up the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia. In 2022, he was appointed as the tenth President of Athabasca University, known as ‘Canada’s Open University’. In all his roles, he has led from strategy with a focus on the learner and with integrity.
Commenting on his appointment, Professor Scott said, “All my working career has focused on a mission to open quality education to all, lifelong. I am driven in that work by a passion for the positive change and outcomes that are created by excellent learning at all levels and am excited by the opportunity that technology provides as a sociopolitical instrument to revision the academy and learner experience for the challenges we face in the 21st century. In all my career roles, I have driven educational change and strategic leadership on new modes of learning and teaching with a particular focus on the global transformational change offered via new learning opportunities in a digital world. I greatly look forward to helping COL achieve even greater impact in its mission to promote learning for sustainable development in the Commonwealth.”
Professor Scott has been active as a scholar and researcher throughout his career and a recognised speaker on pedagogy, technology and opening up education. He was the founding President of the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning and the European Conference of Technology Enhanced Learning. As an academic entrepreneur, he launched a technology spin-out company in interactive telepresence. As a learning innovator, he worked with Apple to lead in the European launch of Apple’s iTunes U™ and iBooks™. Peter Scott is a citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom.
Commenting on the appointment, Professor Asha Kanwar said, “Peter Scott commands respect for his contribution to contemporary thoughts on education. With the rapid advances in technology and the sharp focus on innovation, who better than Professor Scott to lead COL to the next level?” Professor Kanwar has served as COL’s President and Chief Executive Officer since June 2012.
The Commonwealth of Learning, based in Burnaby, Canada and New Delhi, India, was created by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1987 to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. The Commonwealth comprises 56 countries – most of which are developing nations – and one-quarter of the world’s population.
