Reimers Appointed the CJ Koh Professor in Education at NIE

The following is a press release from from the National Institute of Education, Singapore.

The National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore, announced today the appointment of Fernando Reimers as the 2015 CJ Koh Professor in Education.

Each year, outstanding professors in the field of education are hosted by NIE under the CJ Koh Professorship in Education program. Since its inception in 2006, the CJ Koh Professorship in Education program has seen a number of world renowned professors in the field of education visit including Professor Susan Fuhrman, President of Teachers College, Columbia University, Professor Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor for Education Policy to the Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The CJ Koh Professorship has been made possible through a generous donation by the late Mr Ong Tiong Tat, executor of the late lawyer Mr Koh Choon Joo’s (CJ Koh) estate, to the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Endowment Fund.

For this year’s visit, NIE has appointed Professor Fernando Reimers of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Professor Tan Oon Seng,  Director, of Singapore’s NIE, NTU shares, “We are much honored to have Professor Reimers visit NIE this year as our 11th CJ Koh Professor in Education. The CJ Koh professorship is the most prestigious visiting professorship that the institute currently awards. Each year, world renowned professors in Education are nominated based on their outstanding contribution to the field at a global level and final appointment is made by the senior management team at NIE.”

He further adds, “Given his vast experience in the field of global education and his current research on a cross-national project to study K-12 educational programs that support the development of 21st century skills in Chile, China, India, Mexico, Singapore and the United States, we are certain that his visit to Singapore will bring along with it deep and valuable insights to the Singapore education fraternity. Professor Reimers joins the elite league of past CJ Koh appointees including Professors Linda Darling-Hammond, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Andy Hargreaves and Andreas Schleicher”.

Professor Fernando Reimers, who has an ongoing collaboration with the NIE as part of the cross-national study of 21st century education he directs, expressed ‘I am deeply honored by this invitation of my colleagues in the NIE, to further our already productive exchanges, animated by our common desire to advance knowledge that can help all children gain the skills they will need to become architects of their own lives and contributing members of their communities. I very much look forward to continuing to learn about Singapore’s remarkable achievements in education reform, and to a rich dialogue with leaders of thought and practice, as well as students, in that beautiful country”.

Fernando Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education and Director of both the Global Education Innovation Initiative and the International Education Policy Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. An expert in the field of Global Education, his research and teaching focus on the relationship between education policy, innovation, leadership, and quality improvement to support children and youth in developing the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century.

Professor Reimers’ writings have conceptualized and defined the profile of a globally competent graduate in the 21st century. He has studied the impact of entrepreneurship education with youth in the Middle East as well as the impact of citizenship education programs on youth in Latin America.  He is the founding director of the International Education Policy Master’s Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a program focused on the development of innovative leaders committed to expanding global educational opportunity. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Education and works with education policy makers in the United States, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. He is also a member of the US Commission for UNESCO and of the Massachusetts State Board of Higher Education and serves on the boards of various educational organizations including Room to Read, Teach for All, Global Cities, and the Latin American Scholarship Program for American Universities.

During his stay in Singapore, Professor Reimers will give the prestigious annual CJ Koh Public Lecture and will participate in a series of seminars and dialogues with faculty at the NIE, meet with senior education policy makers and other stakeholders interested in education reform.  The learnings from his visit will be published as part of the CJ Koh Professorial Lecture Series (http://www.nie.edu.sg/research-publications/cj-koh-professorial-lecture-series) launched in 2011 in order to advance knowledge creation and exchange with NIE’s internal, external and international stakeholders in education, who can benefit from the information shared during each CJ Koh Professorship visit.