Brenda Mary Gourley (born December 1, 1943) was the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University from 2002 until 2009.
Brenda Mary Gourley (born December 1, 1943) was the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University from 2002 until 2009.
Gourley is a qualified Chartered Accountant and an emeritus professor of Accounting and Finance. She has served as a non-executive director on a variety of Boards and Trusts in both the public and private sectors. She was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Natal, South Africa for eight years. When appointed at Natal in 1994 she was South Africa's first female Vice-Chancellor. The Brenda M Gourley Scholarship is awarded in her honour at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal for 'the undergraduate student ranked second in the full range of undergraduates throughout the University.' [1]
She was appointed the fourth Vice-Chancellor of The Open University in 2002. [2] Gourley made a special effort to inspire The Open University to engage with Africa. This involved raising substantial funds to enable them to offer their services to Africa. [3] Gourley ensured that The Open University was the first British university to make a large selection of its educational resources freely available on the web, [4] and she continues to champion the Open Educational Resource movement. [5] She supports the role of Higher Education in promoting social justice and finding a sustainable way of out of poverty. [6]
Gourley was a Founder Member of the Talloires Network of universities and educational institutions; an organisation that is aimed at strengthening the civic roles of universities and higher education. [7] She served on the board of the International Association of Universities for eight years. [8] She served as Chair, for two terms, of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. [9]
Gourley was on the board of the University of Brighton from 2011 to 2015 [10] Gourley was an independent non-executive director on the board of the South African listed company, AdvTech Ltd for 11 years until March 2021, [11] and for 8 years, until 2019, on the Board of Trustees of the charity group, IADP, the International Association for Digital Publications, that seeks to improve the educational experience and outcome of tertiary education in developing countries. [12] She was Chair, for two terms, of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth, a charity that sought to improve the educational experience and outcome of tertiary education in Commonwealth countries. [13] She was an elected Councillor on the City and Guilds of London Institute [14] and a Trustee of The Royal Anniversary Trust which awards the biennial Queen's Anniversary Prize. [15]
Gourley has been awarded 14 honorary doctorates from universities on four continents and, in 2014, Gourley was awarded the Outstanding Educator Award by UNISA University of South Africa which acknowledges her 'significant contribution to our society in the area of primary/pre-primary, secondary or tertiary education.' [16]
In 2009 Gourley was named as one of the UK's most inspiring women in the Women in Public Life awards, receiving the International Public Servant of the Year and overall Outstanding Achiever awards. [17]
Jacques Jean Marie, Count Rogge was a Belgian sports administrator and physician, who served as the eighth president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. In 2013, Rogge became the IOC's honorary president, a lifetime position, which he held until his death from Parkinson's disease in August 2021.
Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she served as British High Commissioner to Australia. She was created a life peer in 1997, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council from 2003 to 2007.
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases honoris causa or ad honorem . The degree is typically a doctorate or, less commonly, a master's degree, and may be awarded to someone who has no prior connection with the academic institution or no previous postsecondary education. An example of identifying a recipient of this award is as follows: Doctorate in Business Administration (Hon. Causa).
Graça Machel is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. Machel is an international advocate for women's and children's rights and was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for her humanitarian work. She is the only woman in modern history to have served as First Lady of two countries: South Africa and Mozambique. She is the widow of former President of Mozambique Samora Machel (1975–1986) and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela (1998–2013).
The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is a charitable organization that was established in 1913, and has over 400 member institutions in over 40 countries across the Commonwealth. The ACU is the world's oldest international network of universities. Its mission is to promote and support excellence in higher education for the benefit of individuals and societies throughout the Commonwealth and beyond. It has a combined population of 3 billion, mainly under the age of 30, in Commonwealth countries.
Prince Hassan bin Talal is a member of the Jordanian royal family who was previously Crown Prince from 1965 to 1999, being removed just three weeks before King Hussein's death. He is now 20th in line to succeed his nephew King Abdullah II.
The Open University of Catalonia is a private open university based in Barcelona, Spain.
Doctor of Letters, also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University and American Trinity University, the degree is an "interdisciplinary" program of postgraduate study designed "with working professionals in mind." Depending on the country, the degree may also be a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor of Science or Doctor of Laws (LL.D). It is awarded in Argentina and Mexico by universities in recognition of superior accomplishment in the Arts, Social Sciences or humanities, such as original contributions to the creative or cultural arts, or scholarship in Social Sciences and humanities and other merits. or may be conferred as an earned higher doctorate by Universities in England or Canada after the submission and academic evaluation of a portfolio of sustained scholarship, publications, research, or other scientific work of the highest caliber.
Dame Claire Bertschinger, DBE, DL is an Anglo-Swiss nurse and advocate on behalf of suffering people in the developing world. Her work in Ethiopia in 1984 inspired Band Aid and subsequently Live Aid, the biggest relief programme ever mounted. Bertschinger received the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991 for her work in nursing, and was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for "services to Nursing and to International Humanitarian Aid".
The University of London Worldwide is the central academic body that manages external study programmes within the federal University of London. All courses are branded as simply "University of London", having previously been "University of London International Programmes" and earlier "University of London External Programmes". It claims to be the world's oldest distance and flexible learning body, established under the University of London's royal charter of 1858, although academics have disputed whether it offered distance learning at that time.
Margaret Omolola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey is a British actress, author, crossbench peer, and Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.
Suh Nam-pyo was the thirteenth president of KAIST from 2006 until 2013, succeeding Robert B. Laughlin and succeeded by Sung-Mo Kang.
The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 students, including international students from 130 countries worldwide, making it one of the world's mega universities and the only such university in Africa.
William Walsh was successively Professor of Education, Professor of Commonwealth Literature and Acting Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leeds.
Robert Cormack FRSE is a Scottish emeritus professor who retired in late 2009 from the UHI Millennium Institute. He taught at Queen's University, Belfast where his service spanned the troubles in Northern Ireland. He became a leading specialist and author on equal opportunities, discrimination and public policy in Northern Ireland.
Rosina Mamokgethi Phakeng is a South African professor of mathematics education who in 2018 became a vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT). She has been the vice principal of research and innovation, at the University of South Africa and acting executive dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at UNISA. In 2018 she was an invited speaker at the International Congresses of Mathematicians. In February 2023 it was announced that she would leave her position as vice-chancellor of UCT and take early retirement. She was succeeded by Professor Daya Reddy on 13 March 2023.
Kim Jones is an American IT business leader, who is currently the CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder of Curriki, a non-profit, global online community focused on improving education through technology. Curriki currently has nearly 15 million users and over 260,000 learning resources making extensive use of digital media and social networking.
An open university is a university with an open-door academic policy, with minimal or no entry requirements. Open universities may employ specific teaching methods, such as open supported learning or distance education. However, not all open universities focus on distance education, nor do distance-education universities necessarily have open admission policies.
Professor Helen Rees OBE GCOB D.Sc. Medicine LLD is a medical doctor, and the founder and executive director of Wits RHI, the largest research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a Personal Professor in the University of Witwatersrand's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, co-director and co-founder of the Wits African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE), Honorary Professor in the Department of Clinical Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an Honorary Fellow at Cambridge University's Murray Edwards College, UK.
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