ACER to open office in Sydney

One of the world's leading educational research centres, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), will open an office in Sydney in January 2002.

The announcement was made in Melbourne today by the Executive Director of ACER, Professor Geoff Masters. He indicated the opening of the Sydney office will allow ACER to strengthen its expanding role as a major national and international provider of research-based information, products and services to the education sector.

"The opening of a national office in Sydney has been a priority of the ACER Board of Directors for the past twelve months. The existence of offices in both Sydney and Melbourne will allow us to provide enhanced services to the education community, not only in New South Wales and Victoria, but nationally and internationally," Professor Masters said.

"Our long term plan is to locate a wide range of ACER activities in our Sydney office, including policy research studies, assessment programs, and the provision of products and services to support the work of professional practitioners."

Professor Masters also announced that the first manager of ACER's Sydney office will be Professor Jim Tognolini, who for the past eight years has held the position of Director of the Educational Testing Centre at the University of New South Wales.

"Professor Tognolini is an international leader in educational measurement. He has been instrumental in the development of large scale literacy and numeracy testing programs in Australia. ACER is delighted that he will be providing leadership to our Sydney office as we work to expand the range of services we offer," Professor Masters said.

Established in 1930, ACER is an independent organisation located in Melbourne. It has a solid reputation as a provider of reliable support to education policy makers and professional practitioners. ACER currently employs 140 personnel, many of whom are experts in their respective research fields.