Professor Alan Smithers BSc, MSc, PhD, CPsychol, FSRHE is the Director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research. He has been previously Sydney Jones Professor of Education at the University of Liverpool (1998-2004), Professor of Policy Research at Brunel University (1996-1998), and Professor of Education at the University of Manchester (1976-1996). He was first a research scientist at London University and was recruited to the study of education.
His most recent research has been on educating clever children; the impact of international comparisons on education policies; school admissions; and physics in schools and universities. He has also published extensively on school examination and test results; teacher training, recruitment and retention; specialist schools; independent schools, technical and vocational education, headship, and single-sex education. He has written many refereed papers in biology, psychology and education, and reports and books on education and employment.
He has served on national committees including the National Curriculum Council, the Beaumont Review of National Vocational Qualifications and the Royal Society Committee on Teacher Supply. Since 1997 he has been specialist adviser to the House of Commons Education Committee.
Professor Smithers can be contacted directly:
Email: alan.smithers@buckingham.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1280 820270 (direct line)
- Alan Smithers, “Making 14-18 education a reality”
- Educating the Highly Able. London: The Sutton Trust, 2012
- A-Levels 2011. Buckingham: CEER, 2011
- GCSE 2011. Buckingham: CEER, 2011
- The Good Teacher Training Guide 2011. Buckingham: CEER, 2011
- Choice and Selection in School Admissions: the experience of other countries. London: The Sutton Trust, 2010
- The Good Teacher Training Guide 2010. Buckingham: CEER, 2010
- Worlds Apart: social variation among schools. Buckingham: The Sutton Trust, 2010
- Physics Participation and Policies: lessons from abroad. Buckingham: Carmichael Press, 2009
- The Good Teacher Training Guide 2009. Buckingham: CEER, 2009
- Specialist Science Schools. Buckingham: CEER, 2009
- HMC Schools: a quantitative analysis. Buckingham: Carmichael Press, 2008
- Good Teacher Training Guide 2008. Buckingham: CEER 2008
- Physics in Schools: supply and retention of teachers. Buckingham: Carmichael Press, 2008
- The Diploma: a disaster waiting to happen? Buckingham: Carmichael Press, 2008