Daniel is president and chief executive officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada. This is an intergovernmental organisation created by the Commonwealth Heads of Government in late 1987 to help developing Commonwealth countries expand learning for development purposes, using open or distance education and technology-assisted approaches. It is based in Vancouver, Canada and New Delhi, India.
Today UCC will graduate its first batch of the Commonwealth Executive MBA and MPA degree students. UCC executive chairman Winston Adams disclosed that the institution was granted an exclusive licence in 2007 by the Commonwealth of Learning to offer these programmes in the Caribbean. Currently, there are four other cohorts completing the programmes at UCC campuses in Kingston and Montego Bay.
Approximately 1,000 undergraduate students enrolled in 20 programmes, from certificate to bachelor's degree levels, will be eligible to participate in the graduation exercise, which commences at 2 p.m.
university president
St John joined the Commonwealth of Learning in 2004 after serving as UNESCO's assistant director-general for education from 2001-04, in addition to his involvement in distance learning for more than three decades. Earlier he was a university president for 17 years at Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada, and the Open University in the United Kingdom.
He trained initially as a metallurgist at Oxford University in the UK (undergraduate) and Paris (doctoral) and undertook further graduate study in educational technology in Montreal, Canada. He is best known for his 280 publications is his book, Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for services to higher education in 1994 and has received 28 honorary doctorates from universities in 16 countries.