Prof. Louis Volante


Professorial fellow

Research group(s):
1. Economics of Knowledge and Innovation
4. Governance and institutions
7. Social Protection

Louis Volante (PhD) is a full professor in Education Governance and Policy Analysis at Brock University and a professorial fellow at UNU-MERIT / Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG). He has held visiting professor appointments in England (University College London), the Netherlands (UNU-MERIT), and Canada (University of Toronto). Professor Volante provides consultancy to various national and international organizations such as the OECD, UNESCO, and the European Commission, recently serving as the coordinator of the Education Sector Policies course offered by the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) in Paris, France. 

Professor Volante’s interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on the global governance of education; politics, policy, and large-scale reform; political economy of education systems; international achievement surveys and policy diffusion; and impact evaluation of policies and programmes. His research is widely cited in both academic and policy communities and has received continuous funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). His current SSHRC funded research examines the short- and long-term impact of the pandemic on student outcomes. He is fortunate to have a publication record that has included collaborations with over 150 scholars to examine 30 different national education systems.

Among his various distinctions, Professor Volante is a two-time recipient of the R.W.B. Jackson Publication Award, which is awarded annually by CSSE to recognize the most outstanding English language journal article. He has been featured as an educational change expert by research societies such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA). At UNU-MERIT  Professor Volante supervises graduate students in the PhD Programme in Governance and Policy Analysis. He also teaches doctoral courses which focus on the Global Governance of Education and Policy Evaluation. Louis completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto with a focus on policy studies after receiving a UofT Open Scholarship from the School of Graduate Studies.

To streamline content, only select publications from 2020 onwards are listed.




Selected publications by Louis Volante


UNU-MERIT