38th COBIS Annual Conference Programme

Annual Conference 2019
Andreas Schleicher
Director for Education and Skills, OECD
Andreas Schleicher is Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the
Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He initiated
and oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international
instruments which create a global platform for policy-makers, researchers and educators to innovate
and transform educational policies and practices. He has worked for over 20 years with ministers and
educational leaders around the world to improve quality and equity in education. US Education Secretary
Arne Duncan said about Andreas in The Atlantic (7/2011) that ‘he understands the global issues and
challenges as well as or better than anyone I’ve met, and he tells me the truth’. Secretary of State Michael
Gove in the United Kingdom called Andreas ‘the most important man in English education’, never
mind that he is German and lives in France. Andreas is the recipient of numerous honours and awards,
including the Theodor Heuss Prize, awarded for ‘exemplary democratic engagement’ in the name of the
first president of the Federal Republic of Germany. He holds an honorary professorship at the University of
Heidelberg.
Owen Henkel
Director of Efficacy and Research, Pearson Affordable Learning Fund, Pearson
Owen Henkel is Director of Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF), investing ‘patient capital’ in some of
the world’s most innovative and impactful education ventures. As Director of Efficacy and Research, he
works across the portfolio to measure, report and improve student learning outcomes.
Prior to PALF, Owen worked as a consultant to ed-tech start-ups in Latin America, an associate at McKinsey
& Co., and as Teach for America corps member in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Owen holds a dual MBA/MA at the University of Michigan, where he focused on statistics, education
technology, and impact investing. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Oxford, focusing on
Artificial Intelligence in education, while continuing his role at PALF. His research focuses on the potential
that recent advances in ‘data science’ have for improving the analysis of student-level educational
performance, specifically how large-scale assessments of early-stage literacy in low- and middle-income
countries and recent advances in communication technology and artificial intelligence can be used to
improve them.
Professor Rose Luckin
Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies & Director of EDUCATE London, UCL Institute
of Education
Rose Luckin is Professor of Learner Centred Design at UCL Knowledge Lab in London. Her research
involves the design and evaluation of educational technology using theories from the learning sciences
and techniques from Artificial Intelligence (AI). She has a particular interest in using AI to open up the
‘black box’ of learning to show teachers and students the detail of their progress intellectually, emotionally
and socially. Rose is author of Machine Learning and Human Intelligence: the future of education in the 21st
century, published in June 2018 by IOE press. In October 2018, Rose co-founded the Institute for Ethical
AI in Education, with social entrepreneur Priya Lakhani and VC Sir Anthony Seldon. Rose is also Director
of EDUCATE, a London hub for educational technology start-ups, researchers and educators to work
together on the development of evidence-informed educational technology.
Rose holds an International Francqui Chair at KU Leuven, and was named on the Seldon List 2017 as one
of the 20 most influential people in education. She is a UFI charity trustee, a governor and trustee of St
Paul’s School in London, a governor of the Self-Managed Learning College in Brighton and a member
of the Cambridge University Press Syndicate (ELT & Education Publishing Committee). She has taught in
the state secondary, further education and higher education sectors, and she was previously Pro-Vice
Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the University of Sussex.
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