Alan Tuckett

Sir Alan Tuckett is a British adult education specialist born in 1948 who became one of the most influential figures in lifelong learning policy. After graduating with a first-class degree in English and American literature from the University of East Anglia in 1969, he built his career around expanding access to education for adults outside formal schooling. From 1988 to 2011 he served as chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, where he championed adult learners' campaigns and was described by the Guardian as the man who effectively invented the modern concept of the adult learner in British public life. He went on to serve as president of the International Council for Adult Education from 2011 to 2015. Since 2015 he has held a professorship of education at the University of Wolverhampton, and in 2020 the German Academic Exchange Service established a guest professorship for him at the University of Wurzburg. He was appointed OBE and later knighted for his services to further and adult education.