Media

New Director for Continuing Education and President of Kellogg College

13 December 2007

Professor Jonathan Michie is to be appointed to the joint positions of Director of the Department for Continuing Education and President of Kellogg College at Oxford University. He will replace Dr Geoffrey Thomas who is retiring from the joint post later this month. Professor Michie’s appointment will take effect from 1 April 2008.

Professor Michie is currently Professor of Management at the University of Birmingham and Director and Head of School at Birmingham Business School. He joined the School as Professor of Management in April 2004, becoming Director in June of the same year. Previously, he was Head of the School of Management and Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he also held the Sainsbury Professorship of Management. His background is in economics: he held senior academic posts at Cambridge and London universities, and was an Expert to the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels and in the economics department of the Trades Union Congress. He is also a non-executive Director of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. 

He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was awarded a Scholarship and achieved a first-class Honours degree and later a doctorate in economics; and Queen Mary College, University of London, where he received a Master’s degree with distinction.

The Continuing Education Department is amongst the largest in the University with student enrolments each year totalling approximately 15,000. The students are generally studying part-time on courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in a wide variety of subjects. It has 40 academic staff representing a range of academic disciplines, including nine joint appointments with other departments of the University. In addition, the Department engages adjunct tutors each year to teach on individual programmes.

Kellogg College is one of the largest graduate colleges in the University with 364 students in the current year. It places particular emphasis on professional development and part-time study: many of the learners are mature students from the UK and abroad, who are returning to graduate level study to take Masters’ degrees and doctorates. Founded in 1990, the college’s new permanent home is in Norham Manor, North Oxford, although many of its functions continue to be held at Rewley House in the centre of Oxford.

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, Dr John Hood, said: ‘ I am delighted that Professor Michie has agreed to join Oxford University, particularly at the beginning of a new era for Kellogg College, which is growing faster than any other graduate college at Oxford.’

Commenting on his new appointment, Professor Jonathan Michie said: ‘The Department for Continuing Education and Kellogg College do an outstanding job in making the scholarship of the University of Oxford accessible beyond the full-time student body. This role is becoming ever more vital as the knowledge economy puts a premium on Continuing Professional Development and lifelong learning. It is a mission to which I’ve always been committed, so I am delighted to be returning to Oxford to lead this work.’

For further information or for a photograph of Professor Jonathan Michie, please contact Oxford University Press Office on 01865 280534 or press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

  • The Department for Continuing Education at Oxford University offers courses covering a wide range of subjects with provision for individuals, organisations, and professional groups. Courses are offered on a part-time basis, online, or in the form of short courses (one day to several weeks and residential summer schools). It consists of four divisions: Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which provides flexible, part-time, post-graduate education to meet the changing needs of a wide range of professional practitioners; International Programmes, which offers a wide range of subjects and courses specifically to those from outside the UK; Public Programmes, which offers a wide range of part-time courses for adults at different academic levels; and Technology-assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL), which specialises in e-learning research and providing bespoke e-learning solutions.
  • Oxford was one of the pioneers of the University Extension movement in the United Kingdom, and the Department for Continuing Education still retains the original mission of making the scholarship of the University accessible to wider audiences.
  • Kellogg College is the base for part-time and other adult students in the University. The College was inaugurated in May 1990, matriculated its first students in 1992 and is working towards a programme of further growth over the next decade. The work of Kellogg College is about providing opportunities for lifelong learning and giving people access to Oxford and higher education.

 

Further information