Maria Slowey

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Originally from Dublin, Professor Maria Slowey is Director of Higher Education Research and Development in Dublin City University, where, from 2004 to 2009 she was Vice-President for Learning Innovation and Academic Registrar. She has held senior academic leadership and managerial positions in three different universities in Ireland (DCU: 2004 to present) Scotland (University of Glasgow: 1992-2004) and England (University of Northumbria: 1984-1992). Her career has particularly focused on research-led innovation in higher education, widening access, internationalisation and lifelong learning.

Her research and policy interests include patterns of participation in higher education, equality of opportunity and widening access to lifelong learning opportunities, comparative tertiary education policy, the participation of adults in education and training, and the role of the university in the community. She has written extensively on these issues and has acted as a consultant to a range of bodies internationally, including OECD, UNESCO, the EC, the Council of Europe, the European Training Foundation, the European Association for Education of Adults, the Swedish National Board for Higher Education, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, the US Advisory Council on Continuing Education.

In relation to PASCAL, Maria was founding Director of the Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelomng Learning (CRADALL) in Glasgow University which is a lead PASCAL node. In 2009, she participated in a PASCAL Peer Review of Melbourne, Knowledge Capital.

Interests/Expertise: 
  • Research and policy analysis in relation to the following areas: universities and regional engagement; widening access; continuing education, part-time and adult students; lifelong learning in higher education; comparative and international perspectives on higher education reform; innovation teaching and learning in higher education.
  • Qualitative and quantitative research; peer review.
Recent research/consultancy: 
  • In 2007, Maria Slowey was one of the founding members of the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance (DRHEA): a consortium of four universities and four institutes of technology in the Dublin City region.
  • Selection from recent examples outside Ireland and the UK, include: UNESCO Global Forum on Higher Education conference chair project on New Patterns in Doctoral Education. OECD, invited expert, OECD Forum on Higher Education, Santiago, Chile. Swedish Research Council and Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems, consultant evaluator for Research Centres competition. International Steering Committee member Research Network on Reforms of Higher Education (With UBC and Universities of Hiroshima and Tsukuba). EUA (European Universities Association), specialist adviser on adult and lifelong earning in higher education (Lille, 2009) and Using Institutional Evaluation to support strategic development: a case study of processes and outcomes, Hamburg 2007.
Recognitions, positions, memberships: 
  • Maria Slowey was a member of the RAE (UK Research Assessment Exercise) Sub-Panel on Continuing Education (1996 and 2001) and the UK Economic and Social Research Council Research Priorities Board (to 2005). In Scotland inter alia she was a member of the Independent Committee of Inquiry on Student Finance established by the Scottish Parliament, (the Cubie Committee, 1999) and an academic adviser to the Scottish Parliament Committee on Lifelong Learning Inquiry on Lifelong Learning (Relevant Qualifications and Recognitions
  • 2001/2). She was also Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee for the £35m ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) and elected Trustee and Council Member of the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE).
  • She is a founder member of the Higher Education Reform Research Network.
  • Maria Slowey’s background is in economics and accountancy (B.Comm, University College Dublin) and sociology (Postgraduate Diploma in Social Science, University College Dublin: M.Litt (master’s by research) Trinity College Dublin).
  • In 2009, Maria Slowey was awarded Academician of the British Academy of Social Sciences.
Selected publications: 
  • 1998, Implementing Change within Universities and Colleges - Ten Personal Accounts, (ed) London: Kogan Page
  •  2000, Higher education and lifelong learning: international perspectives on change, London: Routledge (ed with Hans G.Schuetze)
  •  2003, Higher education and the lifecourse (ed with David Watson), Buckingham: SRHE/OUP.
  • 2005, The Elusive Nature of the Learning Society: A Profile of Adult Participation in Education and Training in Scotland, Commissioned Report, Edinburgh: Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Division, Scottish Executive, pp 81.
  •  2008, ‘Age is just a number? Rethinking learning over the lifecourse?’ in Ageing Horizons, No.8, Institute of Ageing, Oxford University, 23-31.

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