Professor Sir John Sagar Daniels, you were born on 31st May, 1942, in Britain and have both British and Canadian nationality.  After your secondary education at CHRIST’S HOSPITAL in Sussex, UK, from 1952 to 1961 you proceeded to St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford between 1961 and 1965 and obtained a B.A. (First class Honours) in Metallurgy in 1965.

Your thirst for more educational laurels urged you to enroll at the Faculté d’ Orsay/Ecole des Mines at the Université De Paris in 1965 and obtained Doctorate of Science in 1969.  Not content with these achievements you again took an MA in Educational Technology from Sir George Williams and Concordia University.  Other educational achievements included the Senior University Administrators’ Course at the University of Western Ontario in 1978; and you have also pursued the Senior Executive Course in Canadian and International Affairs, as well as various distance education courses at Télé–University, Athabasca University, and the Open  University at various times between 1975 and 2001.  Indeed, for you education truly has no end.

After your first academic appointment at the Ecole Polytechnique of the University of Montreal you spent four years helping to establish Quebec’s Télé–Université, moved west to Alberta as Vice-President of Athabasca University and then returned to Montreal as Vice-Rector of Concordia University.   In 1984 you became President of Laurentian University, Ontario and moved to the UK as Vice-Chancellor of the Open University in 1990.  In 2001 you took up the appointment of Assistant Director–General for Education at UNESCO.  
Sir John, you have been active as a scholar and student throughout your career.  The success of your book, Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media:  Technology Strategies for Higher Education established your reputation in international University circles as a leading thinker on the role of technology in academic communities.
For your services to higher education, you were Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1994.  For the same reason, 25 universities in 15 countries around the world have awarded you honorary degrees, professorships or fellowships.

Sir John, you are the past President of both the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) and the Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE), and served as Vice-President of the International Baccalaureate Organization.  

In all, you have 241 publications and 30 Conference speeches to your credit.  
Professor Sir John Sagar Daniels, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), the University of Education, Winneba, salutes you for your outstanding contribution to higher education, especially to Open and Distance Education as well as Technology in Education.  The University confers on you the degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) Honoris Causa.