Beyond Schooling: Education for a Rapidly Changing World

Professor Dr Ger Graus OBE is a renowned figure in the field of education - once described as “Jean-Jacques Rousseau meets Willy Wonka”. He was the first Global Director of Education at KidZania and the founding CEO of the Children’s University. In 2019, Ger became a Visiting Professor at the National Research University in Moscow, Russia. He is also a Professor of Practice at the University of Cumbria, United Kingdom, and a Member of the PhD Advisory Council at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Ger is a frequent keynote speaker at some of the world’s leading education conferences. Driven by his famous mantra that “Children can only aspire to what they know exists”, Ger champions the cause of equity, progress, purpose, creativity, and innovation in children’s learning. Born in the Netherlands, Ger moved to the United Kingdom in 1983 where he began his teaching career, later becoming a Senior Inspector, and Education Director. Ger is a member of Bett’s Global Education Council; DIDAC India’s Advisory Board; and Junior Achievement’s Worldwide Global Council. He chairs the Beaconhouse School System’s Advisory Board, Pakistan; advises the Fondazione Reggio Children, Italy; supports a range of education start-ups globally; and was invited to help shape the future of education in Dubai as a member of the Dubai Future Councils. In 2023, he joined the Global Teacher Prize Judging and the World’s Best School Prize Academies as a judge. In 2024, Ger was invited onto the Board of Trustees of the Sharjah Education Academy by Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qassimi, Ruler of Sharjah. In the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours List Ger was made an Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to children, and in 2018 he received the Global Education Leadership Award at the World Education Congress, India. In 2022, he was granted the award of Iconic Leader Creating A Better World For All by the Women Economic Forum (WEF) and the following year, Ger was made a Companion of the Harry Volker Genootschap in The Netherlands. Ger’s professional autobiography, Through a Different Lens - Lessons from a life in Education, will be published by Routledge in 2025.

Dr Yusuf Oldac is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at The Education University of Hong Kong and currently serves as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Dr Oldac’s research spans international and comparative higher education, with a current focus on global science and knowledge production in university settings. His research has a particular emphasis on epistemic equity and justice, exploring how knowledge is produced, shared, and valued across diverse cultural and institutional landscapes. His scholarship has been published in leading academic journals, including Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, Scientometrics, Educational Management Administration & Leadership, and the British Journal of Educational Studies. In recognition of his contributions, he has received several prestigious awards, such as the Research and Knowledge Transfer Excellence Award from Hong Kong Lingnan University (2023) and the Newer Researchers Prize from the Society for Research into Higher Education, UK (2022). Dr Oldac also contributes to the academic community as Associate Editor of the Journal Higher Education Evaluation and Development and serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals.

Galib Mammad is the President of The Washington Center of ADA University and President of GNM Ventures LLC. He has built a multifaceted career spanning diplomacy, higher education leadership, entrepreneurship, and non-profit work. After serving as one of Azerbaijan’s early diplomats in the 1990s—helping establish public relations in the President’s Office and opening the Embassy in Washington, D.C. He joined ADA University in 2006 as a consultant for its feasibility study and, from 2007 to 2018, served as Vice Rector of Strategy and Development and then Senior Vice Rector, guiding campus design, program launches, international partnerships, and fundraising. Galib Mammad earned an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2004. He founded the Azerbaijan Trade and Cultural Center in the U.S. in 2000 and the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, set up the ADA University Foundation in Washington, D.C. in 2007, and has managed GNM Ventures LLC since around 2004, facilitating investment and cultural-exchange projects across multiple countries. Fluent in several languages and driven by a “build real things” ethos, he focuses on pragmatic innovation and reciprocal knowledge exchange. Galib Mammad frequently speaks on higher education policy, institutional development, and global collaboration, reflecting commitment to epistemic equity in practice.