Professor Peter Scott, President

Professor Peter Scott is the president at Athabasca University.

Professor Scott is an academic leader with a track record of strategic and operational experience, specializing in digital-led, transformative educational technology innovation. He spent almost 20 years at the Open University, U.K., and most recently, was Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in New South Wales, Australia. He has a PhD in psychology from the University of Sheffield, U.K.

Professor Scott has an established international reputation based in research, as an innovator and university leader who can shape and inform higher education strategic thinking. He has a distinctive specialty in digital-led, transformative educational technology innovation. His research focuses on eLearning, or technology-enhanced learning, looking at how individual technical innovations can create new models of learning.

In his former role at the University of Technology Sydney, he was responsible for driving educational change and providing strategic leadership on new modes of learning and teaching with a particular focus on new digital learning opportunities. He was coordinator for the UTS 2027 Strategy, leading development of the Lifetime of Learning Initiative, a pan-university plan to open UTS learning via online, micro credentials, enterprise learning and more. Prior to joining UTS, Professor Scott was in a senior leadership role at The Open University, U.K. as the director of the Knowledge Media Institute (KMI), a multidisciplinary research and development lab that has been at the forefront of innovation for 25 years.