Alan Smith, devoted his entire career to European cooperation in education, working initially for the German University Rectors Conference and the European Institute of Education and Social Policy. As Operations manager of the European Commission’s ‘Joint Study Programmes’ scheme for higher education cooperation from 1978–1987, Alan participated actively in developing ‘Erasmus’ and was Director of the Erasmus Bureau during its first five years (1987–1992). Later in his career he held various positions at the European Commission, in particular developing and coordinating the adult learning programme ‘Grundtvig’. In this capacity, Alan became firmly convinced of the importance of Prison Education and was instrumental in promoting EU support for the field – a role which, following his retirement, led to the award of EPEA Life Membership in 2015.

Transscript at https://www.epea.org/