"Members of the Authority are delighted to be given the opportunity to co-opt two experts as members of the Authority itself", stated Mr. Dick Langford, chairperson of the Authority when announcing that the Authority had co-opted as members Professor Anne Moran of the School of Education at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown, and Dr. Barry McGaw, Deputy Director for Education, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He added, "it is most useful for the Authority to have as members these people with such a diverse range of experiences and understandings. We will now have important international and North/South dimension to the membership and work of the Authority".

Mr. Langford added, "under the Qualifications Act, the Authority must co-opt two experts as members. This is a recent development in the make-up of State bodies and has been most helpful to the Authority in ensuring that it has a broad membership".

PROFILES

Co-opted Members of the Authority

Professor Anne Moran

Professor Anne Moran is head of the School of Education at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, Co. Antrim. She has a key role on the Senate and Court of the university. She has a deep knowledge of the compulsory school sector and of the further education sector and especially the needs of vocational education. She was an educational adviser to the Post-Primary Review Panel in Northern Ireland which made recommendations about the future of the 11+. Born in Belfast, she was educated in Portstewart and took a Diploma in Home Economics at the Belfast College of Domestic Science at Garnerville. She took an in-service BEd from the University of Ulster. Later she received an MSc in Education Management and finally a doctorate from the University of Ulster.

Dr. Barry McGaw

Dr. Barry McGaw, is the Deputy Director for Education in the Directorate for Education, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) based in Paris. In this role he is responsible for the OECD work on education. One major component focuses on strategies for making lifelong learning a reality for all. This includes work on barriers to investment in lifelong learning, strategies for making learning accessible in terms of pedagogy and location of learning; and ways in which educational institutions can develop their students' skills and motivation for lifelong learning. A second major component involves the devolpment and producation of quantitative indicators of education systems. Dr McGaw is currently serving as one of three members of an Independent Panel on A-level Standards, appointed by the Qualifictions and Curriculum Authority in England. He is also currently a mebmer of the Council of the University of London Institute of Education. Prior to joining OECD in 1998, Dr. McGAw was Executive Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research, an independent, not-for-profit company, based in Melbourne with an international research and development programme. He had earlier been Professor of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Originally a graduate in chemistry from the University of Queensland in Australia, he subsequently studied psychology, completing his PhD in educational psychology and psychometrics at the University of Illinois in the USA.

Members of the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland

Mr. Richard Langford (Chairperson)
Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú (Chief Executive designate)
Official appointment to be made shortly
Ms. Inez Bailey
Mr. Jim Dorney
Mr. Richard Hammond
Fr. Nicholas Flavin
Mr. Donal Kerr
Dr. Caroline Hussey
Ms. Aileen O'Donoghue
Ms. Marie O'Mahony
Prof. Ciarán Murphy
Prof. Joyce O'Connor
Dr. Barry McGaw
Prof. Anne Moran