Professor of the Sociology of Education UQAM/Montreal and Director of the Interdisciplinary Research and Development Center on Lifelong Learning - Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche sur l’éducation permanentet UQAM.

Former Director of the Canadian Institute for Adult Education and of the Applied Research Centre on Work (1972-1984), Paul Bélanger was the director of the UNESCO Institute for Education from 1989 to 2000. Since 2000, he has been Professor at the Education Faculty of UQAM University in Montreal and Director of Interdisciplinary Research Center of this University on Lifelong Learning, the CIRDEP.

After a Masters in political science from the University of Montreal, he undertook graduate studies at Manchester University in UK and received a Doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1976. Later he received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Surrey.

He is the author of many publications and papers including: L'université dans une société éducative (Montréal: PUM,1973), with E. GELPI, Lifelong Learning (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1995), with S. Valdivielso, The Emergence of Learning Societies. Who participates in Adult Education? (London: Pergamon Press, 1997), with A. Tuijnman, Shifting Patterns in Adult Education Participation (London: Pergamon Press,1997), with Kajita, M., 1998. Transitions toward Lifelong Learning: social indicators. Tokyo/Hamburg : NIER-UIE, with P. Federighi, 2000. Unlocking Peoples’ Creative Forces, A Transnational Analysis of Adult Learning Policies. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education, with Doray,Labonté and Levesque, 2005, La participation à l’éducation des adultes. Un portrait en neuf fiches, Montréal: CIRDEP/UQÀM, Québec : Emploi Québec, in 2006, « Learning Cities, Concept and Issues” in Duke, Doyle and Wilson,, 2006,   Making Knowledge Work. Sustaining learning communities and regions, Leicester: NIACE.

Paul Bélanger is the President of the International Council for Adult Education, Member of the Russian Education Academy and Life Member of the National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE) in Great Britain.