Alejandro Tiana Ferrer, Ph.D.

Dr. Alejandro Tiana Ferrer currently serves as the Secretary General of Education for the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain. He also is a Professor of Theory and History of Education at Spain’s National Distance Teaching University (UNED).

Throughout Dr. Tiana’s long and distinguished career, he has held numerous leadership positions in the education field, serving in senior roles in both government and academia. Immediately prior to his current position, he served as Director General for Innovation and Development at the Ibero-American States Organization for Education, Science and Culture from 2003-04. From 1999-2003, he was Vice-Rector for Innovation and Evaluation at UNED. From 1989-96, Dr. Tiana was at the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science in two senior roles, first as Director of the Centre for Research, Documentation and Evaluation and then as Director of the National Institute for Quality and Evaluation.

 Dr. Tiana recently stepped down after a six year term as Chair (1999-2004) of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), an independent international cooperative of national research institutions and governmental research agencies. The IEA has been conducting large-scale comparative studies of educational achievement since 1959, and is the sponsoring organization for the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

In addition, Dr. Tiana has contributed to the work of a number of international organizations over the years, including terms as President of the Consortium of Institutions for Development and Research of Education in Europe (CIDREE) and on the Governing Board of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI-OECD).

He also has been active as a Consultant to the International Bureau of Education (UNESCO), the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura. He is also an active member of a number of international educational organizations including the Haut Conseil pour l’Evaluation de l’Ecole, the Council of Consultant Fellows of the International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO), and the Conseil Scientifique de l'Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique. He also serves on the editorial committees of Revista de Educación, Revista Iberoamericana de Educación, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Prospects/Perspectives/Perspectivas, TEMPORA, and Administration et Education.

Dr. Tiana is the author or co-author of 17 books and more than 100 chapters and articles about the history of contemporary education systems, theoretical models and management of distance education institutions, comparative education, and evaluation of education systems. He received his Ph.D. in Pedagogy from Complutense University of Madrid in 1985.