Clarke- Okah, Willie Dr

Honorary Consultant

Focus:

Higher education and Policy Development

Email:

wclarkeokah@hotmail.ca

Tel:

(876) 927-1020

Fax:

(876) 927-2409

Vertical Tabs

Bio

Dr Willie Clarke-Okah was the Counsellor & Head of Development Cooperation at the High Commission of Canada in Jamaica until he left in 2006 to join the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) as its higher education and policy development specialist. He is credited with the legacy of initiating COLRIM (the COL Review and Improvement Model), a do-it-yourself institutional quality audit manual.

It was successfully pilot-tested in Jamaica. Several higher education institutions (HEIs) in Commonwealth countries have adopted it.
After retiring from COL, he became President & Principal of New Century New Compacts
(NCNC), an international education and development consultancy that he founded. His work in
higher education since then include two major assignments: one, his feasibility study on
enhancing the pedagogical skills of university teachers in Africa. The study was undertaken on
behalf of the African Development Bank. In the other, he led a team of NCNC specialists (in
distance education, nursing education, organizational development, instructional design and IT
& knowledge management) in an operational review of the distance education functions of a
Primary Health Care Practitioner Program being delivered by a consortium of nine universities
in the Canadian Province of Ontario under the aegis of the Council of Ontario Universities.

In 2017, Dr Clarke-Okah was invited to participate as an international expert observer of the
year-long CARICOM Technical Working Group on Tertiary Education.

Dr Clarke-Okah has authored and co-authored several papers, including “ICTs in Teaching” in
ICTs for Higher Education, a background paper for the 2009 UNESCO (Paris) World Conference
on Higher Education. He has given workshops and keynote addresses on the impact of learning
management systems in universities, stumbling blocks in pedagogical leadership in higher
education and quality teaching in universities. His research interests are in donor-government
partnerships, quality assurance and effective teaching and learning in HEIs.
Dr Clarke-Okah holds a PhD in educational studies from McGill University.

Education

2004. PhD Educational Studies, McGill University, Canada. Thesis: Partnerships in Sector-Wide Programming in Education in Tanzania: Narratives of Experience.

1980. MA Politics, Brock University, Canada. Thesis: The News Media in a Changing Global Political System: Toward the Establishment of an African News Agency.

1978. BA 1st-Class Honours in Interdepartmental Studies (Administration & Politics), Brock University (full 4-year degree program completed in less than 3 years).

Publications

Clarke-Okah, W. (June 2018). Mapping Pedagogical Needs of Graduate Social Science Programs. Presented at the June 2018 learning design workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, organized for university teachers in Africa by the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR).

Clarke-Okah, W. (July 31, 2017). Stumbling Blocks in Pedagogical Leadership: A Practitioner’s Perspective. A Keynote Address presented at the PASGR annual Collaborative Master of Research & Public Policy Program Implementation Workshop held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Clarke-Okah, W. & Daniel, J. (May 2010). The Commonwealth of Learning Review and Improvement Model (COL-RIM). Presented at the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) 11th Biennial INQAAHE Forum, Windhoek, Namibia.

Balasubramanian, K., Clarke-Okah, W., et al. (July 2009). ICTs for Higher Education. Background Paper. UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. UNESCO, Paris. Clarke-Okah, W. (June 2009). The Impact of Learning Management Systems in Universities. Keynote address to the University of the West Indies Conference on Bridging the Development Gap through Innovative eLearning Environments. Trinidad & Tobago.

Clarke-Okah, W. (February 2008). Higher Education in the 21st Century: The Iron Triangle’s Critical Leg of Quality Assurance. The University Council of Jamaica 2008 Dennis Irvine Memorial Lecture. Kingston, Jamaica.

Daniel, J., Clarke-Okah, W., & Uvalic-Trumbic, S. (January 2008). External Institutional Evaluations of African Universities. Washington, DC: The World Bank Seminar.

Daniel, J., Kanwar, A., & Clarke-Okah, W. (2007). Creativity in Crisis: Leading the University of the Future. ASCI Journal of Management 36(1&2).

Clarke-Okah, W., & Daniel, J. (September 2007). Can Invitational Institutional Audits make a CostEffective Contribution to Quality Enhancement? Second International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Africa: Promoting Sustainable Quality Assurance Policy

Clarke-Okah, W. (December 2006). Current Policies and Practices in Open and Distance Learning. National Consultative Forum on Open and Distance Learning. Kampala, Uganda.

Clarke-Okah, W. (1999). Country Strategy Paper, CIDA-Tanzania, Basic Education Program 2000-2005 (121 pp).

Vertical Tabs

About SALISES

Programmes

Useful Information

Publications

You are here

Clarke- Okah, Willie Dr

Vertical Tabs