Governance Member Biography - Professor Seán Farren

Professor Seán Farren

BA, MA, PhD

Sean is a graduate of the national University of Ireland, University College Dublin (BA), Essex University (MA) and the University of Ulster (PhD). He commenced his career as a secondary school teacher, teaching in Ireland, Switzerland and Sierra Leone before joining the Education Centre at the University of Ulster in 1970 as a Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer.  He tutored undergraduate and postgraduate courses in English curriculum studies and TEFL for twenty-eight years. His research interests have included: curriculum studies, education in a divided society, the history of Irish education and conflict resolution. 

A long-standing member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, he held public office on Coleraine Borough Council and in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Seán was a Senior Negotiator during the 1996-8 negotiations in Northern Ireland. Following the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement in 1998 he was elected to the new Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 for the constituency of North Antrim, and held ministerial positions in the power-sharing Executive of 1999-2002, first as Minister for Further and Higher Education and, later, as Minister for Finance and Personnel.  He retired from politics in 2007.

Dr Farren is currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Education of the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland where he has been involved in the International Development Programme, and an evaluator of the Student-Teacher Mentoring project with the University of Ulster, Makerere University, the University of Malawi at Chancellor College, and Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. He has also been a member of the Irish-African Research Capacity Building project and is currently a member of the executive committee of the Development Studies Association of Ireland. He is a Trustee of the development agency Concern Worldwide (UK) and a committee member of the Sierra Leone-Ireland Partnership.

Seán is the author of three books, several book chapters and many peer reviewed articles dealing with educational and political issues in Northern Ireland.  Seán is married to Patricia Clarke with four, now grown up, children.  He was appointed to the DCU Governing Authority in June 2011.