Abdul Waheed Khan

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Born in 1947 of Indian nationality, Abdul Waheed Khan holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication (1973) and a Masters in Agricultural Journalism (1970) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, and a Masters in Agricultural Extension (1965) from Agra University (India).

He has been working as Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris since July 2001, where he is responsible for UNESCO’s programmes and activities in communication and information. He is also responsible for coordinating UNESCO’s contribution to the UN ICT Task Force and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Khan served as Vice-Chancellor (President and Chief Executive Officer) at the Indira Gandhi National Open University from 1998 to 2000. In particular, he was responsible for strategic planning, resource mobilization and management of a knowledge network, which includes a consortium of 72 universities. He was also Chairman of the Distance Education Council which is responsible for coordinating all open and distance learning programmes in India.

Khan has extensive international experience in designing, planning and managing communication and information technology applications in education, sciences and culture.

From 1986 to 1992 Khan served as the Founding Director and Professor of the Communications Division of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in New Delhi, where he developed and managed one of the largest state of the art electronic media centres in Asia. He subsequently joined the Commonwealth of Learning (COL in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, firstly as Senior Programme Officer (1992 1995) then as Acting Head of the Communications and Information Technologies Division (1995 1996) and as Principal Communications Specialist (1996 1998). Mr Khan served as a Visiting Professor/Scientist (1990 1991) at the National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) in Chiba, Japan.

Abdul Wahhed Khan has actively contributed to the boards of various national and international bodies including the ISS INFOTECH Ltd, India, IDS International, Thailand, WETV Foundation, Canada and the United States Educational Foundation (USEFI), India. He has served as Chairperson of the Distance Education Council, Vice Président of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) in Oslo and as President of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU). He is a member of a number of professional associations including the International Institute of Communications of the United Kingdom. He is also the recipient of several awards and distinctions such as the "Distinguished Service Award", Commonwealth of Learning, as well as the "India 2000 Millennium Award for Education and World Peace".

Khan is the author of a number of books and articles published in various academic journals, especially on development communication, distance education and multi-media technology applications.