Michael Byram has been Professor Emeritus since October 2008. Byram began his professional life as a teacher of foreign languages in secondary education in England, complemented by work in adult education. He then moved to the University of Durham to the School of Education, where he worked for almost 30 years, first in initial teacher education and then increasingly in doctoral education. From the 1990s until recently, Byram was adviser and expert at the Council of Europe in language policy and intercultural and democratic citizenship.