معرفی
Simon McGrath is a Professor of Education (People, Place & Social Change) at the University of Glasgow, and a visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Previously, he held the UNESCO Chair in International Education and Development at the University of Nottingham. His research focuses on the education-development nexus, particularly vocational learning, informal economies, and sustainable futures.
Key areas of expertise include skills for just transitions, education policies for human development, and the role of vocational education in addressing global challenges like climate change. McGrath has advised governments in the UK and South Africa and contributed to international policy frameworks with UNESCO, the Commonwealth, and SADC.
He has been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on projects totaling £35 million, including a £2.4 million Horizon Europe grant (VETPrep) starting 2025 on access and retention in vocational education post-COVID.
McGrath supervises doctoral students in areas like skills for rural development, informal apprenticeship systems, and ethnic minority youth aspirations. He has guided 65 PhD completions and teaches at UG/PG levels on lifelong learning and research methodologies.
Awarded the 2015 Atlas Award (Elsevier) and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2016), he serves on editorial boards for journals like Journal of Vocational Education and Training and Journal of Vocational Adult and Continuing Education and Training.
