Prof. Simon Marginson
The University of London, UK
Professor of International Higher Education, Institute of Education
The University of London, UK
Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
- Specializes in higher education, and comparative and international education, being one of the world’s most highly cited social science researchers in these fields
- Professor of Higher Education in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of Melbourne until November 2013
- An Honorary Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne CSHE
- Joint Editor-in-Chief of Higher Education, the principal world scholarly journal in higher education studies
- Works in sociology and socio-cultural studies, political economy, political philosophy and history. His work moves between observational qualitative empirical research, and conceptual studies, with each informing the other. He takes a critical approach to reflection and inquiry, and is especially concerned with the political implications of phenomena. He is interested in problems of agency freedom and equality, and in the potentials of knowledge, inquiry and education to augment human and social capacity, on a world scale.
- He is active in public communication and discussion as well as in academic scholarship and doctoral education. He works in local, national, international, regional and global forums. In the 1990s Simon’s work was focused primarily on markets, competition and public/private sector issues in education, and on Australian national policy. In the 2000s these interests were joined to inquiries into globalization and higher education, university rankings and international student security. The earlier inquiry into positional or status competition and its manifestations in higher education was further developed. Investigation of globalization continues in the 2010s, with emphases on the Asia-Pacific and on global civil society and governance, and has been joined to investigation of the fundamentals of higher education on a comparative basis.
- Also interested in the role of research universities in acts and conditions of path-breaking creativity. He is currently preparing books and articles designed to theorize, synthesize and explain global relations and transformations in higher education, knowledge and creative work
- Awarded $1.9 million in national competitive grants and $2.9 million in all research project funding since 1995, including eight ARC Large and Discovery Project grants, and one Linkage Project grant
- Contributes to community, industry and professional organisations and is a regular public and media commentator on higher education, especially national policy in the UK and in Australia, and on developments in higher education in East and Southeast Asia, and in Europe and Russia
- Conducted many education policy studies, basic and applied, including commissioned reports for the Australian and Victorian government, OECD, the European Commission and the governments of Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Netherlands and Ireland
- Contributes to government and international agency committees, inquiries and meetings. Recent policy-related papers include work on university governance, implications of globalization for higher education, global university rankings, federal-state relations in Australian education, policy on and regulation of international education in Australia, including international student rights and security, and an international comparison of government policies and strategies in relation to the STEM disciplines
- An Honorary Fellow of the UK Society for Research into Higher Education; a member of El Seminario de Educacion Superior de la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (the National University of Mexico, Mexico City); has advisory roles in the Peking University Graduate School of Education, at the University of Tokyo, and at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow in Russia
- Active in the Association for Studies in Higher Education in the United States where he chaired the International Forum of the Association in 2004-2005, and in 2010-2011 was an international member of the American Council on Education’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Global Engagement
- Held committee positions in the American Educational Research Association, including the journal Educational Researcher
- Serves on the Editorial Board of the Times Higher Education (being one of the two international members, with Phil Altbach of the United States) and on the Advisory Committee of the Academic Ranking of World Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Graduate School of Education in China
- His Books include
- Education and Public Policy in Australia (1993)
- Educating Australia (1997)
- Markets in Education (1997)
- The Enterprise University (with Mark Considine, 2000)
- International Student Security (with Chris Nyland, Erlenawati Sawir and Helen Forbes-Mewett, Cambridge University Press, 2010)
- Three books on creativity and globalization with Peter Murphy and Michael Peters, published by Peter Lang: Creativity and the global knowledge economy (2009), Global Creation (2010) and Imagination (2010)
- Four of his books have been translated into Chinese and a fifth book, a set of essays on globalization not all yet published in English, is in translation
- Higher education in the Asia-Pacific: Strategic responses to globalization (edited with Sarjit Kaur and Erlenawati Sawir, July - Springer)
- Universities and the Public Sphere (edited with Brian Pusser, Ken Kempner and Imanol Ordorika, August - Routledge)
- The Handbook on Higher Education and Globalization (edited with Roger King and Rajani Naidoo, September - Edward Elgar)
- Ideas for Intercultural Education (with Erlenawati Sawir, 2011 - Palgrave Macmillan)
- Regulating International Student Well-being (with Gaby Ramia and Erelenawati Sawir, 2013 - Policy Press)
- The Globalization of Higher Education, a book of readings (Edward Elgar, with Roger King and Rajani Naidoo)
- The Dawkins Revolution 25 Years On (Melbourne University Publishing, with Gwil Croucher, Andrew Norton and Julie Wells)
- Tertiary Education Policy in Australia (CSHE), and a monograph on STEM policy and programs, based on a policy research project, for the Australian Council of Learned Academies (with Russell Tytler and Brigid Freeman)
- The Age of STEM (Routledge, with Brigid Freeman and Russell Tytler)
- Higher Education in Vietnam (Palgrave, with Ly Tran and seven other coauthors). Simon is preparing a monograph for Melbourne University Publishing provisionally titled Higher Education
- Simon's journal boards including the field leading Higher Education, Journal of Studies in International Education, and in cultural politics, Thesis Eleven
- Serves on the boards of Higher Education Policy, Higher Education Quarterly, Journal of Education and Work, Critical Studies in Education, Journal of Southeast Asian Education, and Australian Universities Review, among others
- Published more than 220 journal articles, review essays and book chapters (not including self-authored books) including contributions to Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Journal of Education, Comparative Education Review, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Higher Education (eleven articles since 2001), Educational Theory, and Higher Education Research and Development.
- Translated articles and papers have been published in Peking Education Review in China and Critique in France, and in journals and monographs in Spain and Mexico
- Co-written three policy papers published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
- Prepares 20-25 newspaper articles per year, and contributes to various blogs and international higher education publications
- Senior Lecturer and later Associate Professor/Reader (1993-1998), the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne
- Chaired the editorial board of Australian Universities Review between 1995 and 2000
- Joined the Monash University Faculty of Education as Reader (1998)
- Appointed to a Personal Chair as Professor in 2000 and directed the Monash Centre for Research in International Education in 1999-2006
- Edited the Australian Journal of Education from 2000 to 2005
- Became Fellow of the Australian College of Education (FACE) in 1994 and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia (FASSA) in 2000
- Awarded a five year Australian Professorial Fellowship on the recommendation of the Australian Research Council (ARC) in 2002
- Became Honorary Fellow of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (FACEL) in 2002
- Visiting Professor for four months at Hiroshima University in Japan in (2009)
- Appointed as one of the Co-ordinating Editors of Higher Education and in 2013 became joint Editor-in-Chief with Jussi Valimaa from Finland.
