Advisory board

Dr Fiona Aldridge is Head of Skills Insight at West Midlands Combined Authority in the UK. Prior to this, she was Director of Policy and Research at the Learning and Work Institute in Leicestershire. Dr Aldridge has over 20 years’ experience in research related to the development of policy and practice across adult learning, skills and employment. Her current role involves shaping devolved policy on employment and skills for the West Midlands region. 

Emeritus Professor Brian Findsen has worked in the field of adult and continuing education for around 40 years, primarily in his home country of New Zealand but also in Glasgow, Scotland, from 2004 to 2008. He earned his doctorate in adult education in the mid-1980s at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, USA. Brian has worked in three New Zealand universities in varied roles connected to lifelong learning – teacher, researcher, manager and supervisor. His main research interests include learning in later life, the sociology of adult education, social equity issues, and international adult education. He has (co)written and edited several books, been guest editor for journals of special issues and additionally published extensively in later life learning. In ‘retirement’ he has continued occasional academic work alongside engagement in voluntary community projects including as Chair of the Age Friendly Hamilton Steering Group, New Zealand. www.adultlearning.co 

Prof. Marvin Formosa received his Ph.D. in Gerontology from the University of Bristol, UK, lectures at the Department of Gerontology and Dementia Studies, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta, and holds the post of Director of the International Institute on Ageing United Nations – Malta (INIA). He is Chairperson of the National Commission for Active Ageing (Malta) and Rector’s Delegate for the University of the Third Age (Malta). Prof. Formosa is Malta’s Country Team Leader for the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which is partially funded by the European Commission. In 2020, he was the recipient of Doctor Honoris Causa from the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology (St. Petersburg, Russian Federation), and, in 2021, was elected as Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Prof. Formosa has published widely on ageing policy, educational gerontology and Universities of the Third Age. Recent books include Active and Healthy Ageing in Malta (2018), The University of the Third Age and Active Ageing (2019), Population Ageing in the Middle East and North Africa (with Abdulrazzak Abyad, 2021), Ageing and COVID-19 (with Maria Luszczyńska, 2021), and The United Nations International Action Plan on Ageing (with Mala Kapur Shankardass, 2023). Prof. Formosa participated in various international research projects that included the European Union’s funded studies on ‘Services for supporting family carers of elderly people’ and ‘Centre for Third Age Education’. His involvement in United Nations’ missions in human capacity-building in ageing spans more than two decades, from Thailand in 1998 to China in 2023. 

Michael Fung is the Executive Director of the Institute for the Future of Education (IFE) at Tecnológico de Monterrey, leading the university’s efforts to generate, transfer and disseminate knowledge about educational innovation, and supporting the transformation of higher education and lifelong learning to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.  

He was formerly Deputy Chief Executive at SkillsFuture Singapore, where he led the development of a comprehensive education and training ecosystem under the national SkillsFuture movement, which has become a global benchmark and reference for workforce skills development and lifelong learning. 

He was the Founding President of the Higher Education Planning in Asia Association, and serves on various global boards and committees. He is an alumnus of the University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon University in the US, and Tsinghua University in China. 

Dr phil. Beate Hörr holds a PhD from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG Graduate School. She began her career as assistant professor of comparative literature and theatre studies at Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz. She was then DAAD Visiting Professor for German as a Foreign Language and Theatre Studies at Universidad de los Andes, Santa Fe in Bogotá. Her experience enabled her to become head of the Academic Office for Foreign Affairs at the University of Education in Freiburg, Germany. Since 2000, she has been Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning at JGU in Mainz, Germany. As Director of this major centre, she was, among other things, President of the German National Network for Lifelong Learning (www.dgwf.net). She is a deputy member of the Regional Council for Continuing Education in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany), vice-president of the Regional Association of Universities and Sciences in Rhineland-Palatinate and vice-president of the European Universities Continuing Education Network, Eucen, to name but a few. 

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Prof. Dr Claudia Kulmus holds a junior professorship for adult education at the Faculty of Education of the University of Hamburg. She is working on topics of Learning and Participation, particularly in Later Life, assuming that in longevity societies, the learning of older adults becomes more and more important for promoting participation and combating ageism. 

She also works on professional action on micro and meso levels of adult education, such as teaching and programme planning. Claudia is active in the ESREA network Education and Learning of Older Adults (ELOA), in the Adult Education Section of The German Educational Research Association (GERA) and in Section IV of the German Association for Gerontology and Geriatrics.  

She obtained her PhD at Humboldt University in Berlin. Before, she studied Educational Science, Psychology, Sociology and Latin American Studies at the universities of Bamberg, Bilbao (Spain) and Hamburg.  

Associate Professor Carol Ma is a well-known figure in academia and the community sector for her active and passionate involvement in Service-Learning (S-L) and Ageing in Asia. She is currently serving as Associate Professor and Head of the Gerontology Programmes (Master’s & PhD) at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. She leads the development of the curriculum, engages with the community, and conducts research in gerontology while promoting transdisciplinary education to address ageing issues. She has been leading various ageing and service-learning projects, including, among others, the development of geragogy guidelines, reminiscences in dementia care, reminiscence facilitation programme and older adults' functional capacity under the framework of the World Health Organization’s Integrated Care for Older People (WHO ICOPE) programme. She is an advisor for caregiver and eldercare services with Singapore’s National Council of Social Service (NCSS), a member of the Tote Board Community Health Fund (TBCHF) Evaluation Panel, and also serves as an advisor for the International Longevity Centre Singapore (ILC-S). 

Prof. Michael Ng’umbi is an Associate Professor in Education, and the Rector of the Institute of Adult Education in the United Republic of Tanzania (IAE). The Institute of Adult Education Act of 1975 established the IAE as an autonomous government organization responsible for adult education in Tanzania, under the ministry responsible for education.

Mr Michael Ng’umbi has experience in adult education, intergenerational learning, teacher education and education leadership. He has been involved in different educational activities, including the SADC Centre of Specialisation in Teacher Education (Open University of Tanzania); the World Bank–funded SEQUIP project; the UNESCO-sponsored Empowering Women through Education project; the DFID-funded Education Quality Improvement Programme (EQUIP) implementation team; and the National Team for the UNESCO-China Funds-in-Trust (CFIT) project on Quality Teachers for Education for All in Tanzania. Dr Ng’umbi has been a member of ad-hoc technical committees for developing the SADC Regional ODL Policy Documents (in Gaborone, Botswana), as well as the validation team of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) online assessment tools (Johannesburg, South Africa). Dr Ng’umbi is currently the national focal point for the Commonwealth of Learning in Tanzania. 

Andrew E. Scharlach is Professor at the Graduate School of the University of California at Berkeley, where he conducts research regarding social support structures that promote well-being and social engagement in later life. Professor Scharlach is the Founding Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services, and held the Eugene and Rose Kleiner Chair in Aging at Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare from 1990 to 2018.  

Professor Scharlach’s research addresses issues pertaining to the well-being of older adults and their families, including aging-friendly communities, long-term care services, work and family responsibilities, bereavement, and gerontological social work education. He has authored or co-authored five books and more than 100 articles and reports.  

Professor Scharlach served as a gubernatorial appointee on the California Commission on Aging from 2000 to 2009, and was the 2014 recipient of the Gerontological Society’s Matthew A. Pollack Award for Productive Aging. He holds a PhD in Psychology from Stanford University, a Master of Science in Social Services from Boston University, and a BA in Mathematics magna cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Dr Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha is a full Professor for General Education and Educational Research, and Chairholder at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany. Prior to this, he was a professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig and the University of Tübingen. His main areas of research are learning in later life, vocational education, transitions, dropouts, and digital media in learning environments. He is co-editor of three academic journals and is a member of the steering board of the German Educational Research Association. In 2009, he launched the European Network on Education and Learning of Older Adults (ELOA), which is still active. He is also engaged as an evaluator of higher education institutions, study programmes and policy initiatives. Dr Schmidt-Hertha studies were in educational research, psychology and sociology; he finished his PhD in 2004 and his habilitation in 2009.  

Maria Slowey is Emeritus Professor and Director of the Higher Education Research Centre, Dublin City University, where she also served as Vice-President. Her previous positions include Professor and Director of Adult and Continuing Education, and Associate Dean (Research), Glasgow University. Her research focuses on lifelong learning and equality of access, on which she has published extensively. She has been advisor to many national and international bodies including UNESCO, the OECD and the EU. Prof. Slowey has worked in Indonesia on higher education projects, is an assessor with the Portuguese accreditation agency, and has held visiting positions in universities in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the USA, as well as a DAAD Guest Professorship in the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and Guest Professorship in Nagoya University, Japan. She is currently a Visiting Professor in the University of Florence, Italy, and Senior Editor of Studies in Higher Education. Maria is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, member of the International Adult Education Hall of Fame, and recipient of the Bertram Windel Award for services to International Adult Education. Her most recent co-edited publication is Adult Education and Social Justice (Firenze University Press, 2023). 

Prof. Yihui ZHENG is currently the Vice President of Shanghai Open University, and the President of Shanghai University for the Elderly. 

He holds a doctorate of engineering (EngD) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and began his career in 1993. He has held various positions at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, including Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office, Director of the Admissions Office, and President of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press Company. 

He extended his expertise and leadership beyond the university as he took on the role of Director of the Student Affairs Office in the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. His contributions to educational governance are further highlighted by his service as Deputy Director of the Examination Centre and Deputy Director of the National Education Examinations Authority, both within the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.