Speakers

Steffen previously worked as Senior Consultant in Ramboll Management Consulting, where he was project director of large international contracts with the EU, the World Bank and the ADB with a focus on capacity building in the public sector. Later he also worked with national and European evaluations, and with analysis of impact of EU policy. Steffen also spent 4 years in Brussels with responsibility for Intra-Community Affairs in the Red Cross EU Office.

He holds a Master’s degree in Public Governance from the Copenhagen Business School and a BA in Management and Organization. Originally, he was formed as a Master of Political Science at the University of Aarhus.

Steffen Westergard Andersen is a CAIP commission member in the Catalan accreditation institution AQU Catalunya, situated in Barcelona. He is also active in quality assurance discussions at a European level, and he is currently involved in the EU/ASEAN SHARE project, where he is taking part in peer reviews of quality assurance institutions in Malaysia and Indonesia

Lluís Alfons Ariño Martín is a computer engineer with over 30 years of experience in IT specialized in the higher education and public administration sector currently working as Digital Strategist at Rovira i Virgili University.

He’s actively involved in educational domain as Coordinator of the international area of CRUE-Digitalización, National expert on eIDAS ToolBox Process and EUDI Wallet, Convenor of Educational credentials use case at European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) and eIDAS Toolbox working groups, Leader of the Digital Credentials for Europe (DC4EU) Work Package responsible for “Educational credentials, professional qualifications, titles and licenses” (WP5), Member of the Digital Space for Skills project (DS4Skills), and member of EUA Digital Transformation Steering Committee

Eltjo Bazen is a member of the Register Committee and has been working in quality assurance of higher education since 2011, active in both internal and external quality assurance and at both programme and institutional level and in execution and system development.

He currently works as Chief Product Owner Quality Assurance at HU UAS Utrecht (University of Applied Sciences) (NL). Eltjo is active in several Dutch and European networks concerning quality and quality assurance in professional higher education. He has been trained and is active in several auditing roles, such as a chair of internal auditing panels at HU UAS Utrecht, member of institutional audit panels abroad and as assessor in EFQM. Though he loves innovative ideas and experimenting, his firm belief is that the best way to improve is openness and the willingness to learn from each other, whether it be on programme, institutional or system level.

Eltjo has degrees in Philosophy, Business Management and Professional Sailing. His activities in quality assurance are a perfect combination of his love for education and the fields of philosophy and business management. Sailing has been diverted to his free time.

Sandra Bezjak is Assistant Director in Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education. She has started her career at the University of Zagreb and moved to the Agency in 2005. She has been working in the field of QA for more than fifteen years and had active role in the development of QA system in line with ESG in Croatia. Her fields of expertise are institutional and program accreditations, cross-border evaluations, implementation of CroQF, implementation of European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint programmes etc.

She has actively participated in providing support to Croatian HEIs in the development of their own internal QA systems and was an invited speaker at a large number of meetings and events organised on the national and international level. Currently, she is a member of EQAR Register Committee. She was a member of the ENQA Agency Review Committee in its first term (2021-2023) and participated as an expert in several ENQA agency reviews.

Douglas is elected President of ENQA, representing quality assurance agencies in 45 countries of the EHEA. He is former Chief Executive of the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), where he held executive roles for 20 years and is now a consultant.

His first involvement in external quality assurance was in 1987 as President of his Students’ Union. At QAA, he transformed the approach to student engagement for the UK and built connections with QA agencies and Ministries around the world.

His first involvement with ENQA was in 2003 at a seminar called – ‘taking our own medicine’ where the proposals that agencies should themselves be evaluated and a register of trusted agencies be created were first discussed.

Douglas holds several non-executive director roles in education and regulation including the University of Law, the British University in Egypt and the Hong Kong Council for the Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications.’

Maria Arminda Bragança was member of the National Council of Education (Portugal) from 1992-1997 and from 2009-2013 and has integrated different Working Groups and Committees:

Maria Arminda Bragança de Miranda has a Master’s degree in American Studies by the Open University of Lisbon, with a post graduate degree from the National Endowment for the Humanities by the Connecticut College, New London, USA and graduated in British-American Studies by Faculdade de Letras, University of Lisbon. She was an upper secondary school teacher and held positions as Department Coordinator, Teacher Trainer of Continuous and Specialist education.

Maria was a member of the Executive Board of the FNE (National Federation of Education) where she had positions as Department Coordinator (Communication and Press Department, International Department) and member active of the Social Dialogue Department.

She was also National Coordinator of several European Projects, a member of the ETUCE Committee, integrated the Working Group of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in Education (ESSDE) and was not only President of the APPI (Portuguese Association of Teachers of English) but also General-Secretary of the FNAPLV (National Federation of Portuguese Language Associations) and a member of the board of the FIPLV (International Federation of Modern Language Associations).

Maria Arminda Bragança de Miranda participated in the debate and launching sessions of the Bologna Process in Portugal and in the evaluation sessions presented by A3ES-Agency for Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation.

Ángel Luis Trigo is Associated Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Seville. Industrial Engineering (2003), Master in Electric Energy Systems (2008) and PhD in Electrical Engineering (2010) by the University of Seville.

He has more than 10 years of experience in Internationalization: Management of HEI, Networking and International partnerships and Projects, International Offices, mobility, International Promotion and Rankings.

Deputy Director of International Student’s Mobility and Internships of School of Engineering of US and Member of International Student’s Mobility Comitte of US (2013-2016)
Member of Quality Comitte of Energy Engineering Degree of US (2013-2018)
Director of International Promotion Office of US (2016-2021)
Director of International Strategy of US (2021)
COBRING EMDM Coordinator (2022)
UlysseusCitiesMD EMJMD proposal. Coordinator (2023)

He also has more than 20 years of experience in electrical engineering, with many research papers in international journals and articles in international conferences.

The University of Seville has awarded him with the doctoral prize and Engineering School with the young docent prize.

Goran Dakovic is the Head of Agency Reviews at ENQA (the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), where he oversees the external reviews of quality assurance agencies against the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area.

Prior to this position, he worked as a Policy and Project Officer for the Institutional Development Unit at the European University Association (EUA), where he focused on areas such as quality assurance, learning and teaching, and recognition of qualifications and of prior learning. Moreover, he engaged in the EUA Institutional Evaluation Programme’s coordinated evaluations that are initiated at the joint request of institutions and public authorities.

Goran has been active in the higher education field since 2008, including holding a position of the head of the research unit in one of Slovenian higher education institutions, and participating as an external assessor in the HR Excellence in Research Award by the European Commission. Goran holds a master’s degree in Public Policies from the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

Josipa Dragičević works as a head of Unit for Quality of Higher Education at the Croatian Ministry of science and higher education. After attaining PhD degree at the University of Zagreb she worked at Croatian higher education and scientific institutions as a lecturer and a researcher, followed by her work at the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher education. Her professional interest is focused on quality assurance as well as improvement of development strategies in higher education and science.

Marianne van Exel works as a senior policy officer at the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, directorate higher education. She is involved in quality assurance (national and within the EHEA), internationalization and governance of higher education institutions in the Netherlands.

Before she started at the ministry, she worked as policy and quality advisor and project manager at a Dutch university of applied science and as journalist in the Dutch Antilles

Fernando Galán is the Consortium Manager of the Arqus European University Alliance and has over 10 years’ experience working on European higher education policies.

Before joining Arqus, Fernando was head of international engagement at Crue Universidades Españolas, the Spanish rectors’ conference. He has also worked as policy officer at EURASHE, the European Association of Higher Education Institutions offering professional oriented programmes, and as President of the European Students’ Association (ESU), being responsible for the coordination of its policy work.

Fernando has been a member of the governing bodies of the European Higher Education Area / Bologna Process, quality assurance agencies and of different expert groups from the European Union, the Council of Europe, UNESCO and the OECD, among others. In these roles, he has contributed to relevant documents at European level in the field of higher education, such as the Ministerial Communiqués, the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the Higher Education Area (ESG 2015), several EU initiatives, such as U-Multirank, and the work of UNESCO and the Council of Europe on the recognition of qualifications.

In addition, Fernando has participated as a speaker at several prestigious institutions (e.g. Harvard University), published several articles and collaborated in several books on European higher education policies.

Jakub was previously Vice-President of the European Students’ Union (ESU), where he helped develop the organisation’s advocacy and built its capacity in the area of Quality of Higher Education, Students’ Participation in HE Governance, Bologna Process, and the developments of the European Education Area. In this capacity Jakub already served one year on the EQAR Executive Board.

Jakub has a Master Degree in Engineering/Industrial Management and a Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Yiannis Katsanevakis is a senior administrative agent at the Greek Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, with 6 years of experience working alongside the General Secretariat of Higher Education. He specializes in European policy on Higher Education and represents his country in EQAR, BFUG, NQF Correspondents Network, and in various projects and working groups.

His areas of expertise include quality assurance, bilateral relationships, qualification framework, inter-regional cooperation on education between Asia and Europe, recognition of academic qualifications, European University alliances, etc.

Previously, Yiannis worked at the Greek NARIC (for 11 years). He is a Master degree holder in Teaching French as a foreign language and speaks Italian, German, Spanish, Turkish and some Croatian.

Maria Kelo is Director of the Institutional Development at the European University Association (EUA).

The unit’s work focuses on issues related to higher education learning and teaching, recognition and quality assurance. She is also a member of the Swiss Accreditation Council and a member of the Executive Board of EQAR.

Before joining EUA in January 2022, Maria was for over a decade the Director of ENQA, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher as well as member of the EQAR Executive Board in 2013-2020. She took part in European policy making processes within the Bologna Process and through cooperation with the European Commission. Prior to joining ENQA, Maria worked for nine years in the field of international higher education in different European organisations and as a private consultant and has gained significant experiences on issues such as quality assurance, international higher education, and higher education reform.

Maria is a graduate of University College London and the London School of Economics.

Stéphane has extensive experience not only in the French higher education sector, at the University Institute of Technology (IUT) in Le Havre, but also at a European level, as former President of EURASHE.

He was also, until very recently Secretary-General of the French network of University Institutes of Technology, ADIUT. In this capacity, he promoted the French Institutes of Technology, mainly outside Europe and worked with a variety of stakeholders.

Stéphane started his university career at the University of Le Havre Normandy (FR) where he was head of the Electrical Engineering department.

He was also for several years (2007-2011) the Director of the Life Long Learning Centre and Apprenticeship Training Centre at IUT Le Havre and also (2011-2014) reviewer at the HCERES (then AERES), the French Higher Education Quality Assurance agency.

Dr. Bryan Maguire is Director of Integration at Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI). He has worked in QQI and its predecessor agency HETAC since 2005. Previously he was Head of School of Creative Technologies at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Ireland and lectured in Bangor University, Wales from 1991-98. Dr. Maguire holds a bachelor degree in psychology from University College, Dublin and a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco. An internationally recognized expert on qualifications frameworks and quality assurance he has served numerous advisory and review groups, including the European Qualifications Framework advisory group and the Bologna Thematic Peer Group on quality assurance.

Mathieu Musquin studied organisational sociology and economics at the universities of Paris Nanterre and Paris Cité before joining the Training Department of the French National Medicines Agency, where he worked on various projects for the European Medicines Agency. He then joined the Transversal Affairs Unit of the Delegation for European and International Affairs at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, before returning to European affairs a few months before the French presidency of the Council of the European Union.

At the beginning of my work at the ministry, I mainly focused on quality assurance and accreditations.
Later I added micro-credentials to my portfolio. I participated on preparing several national strategies
in the field of education, digitization and training of teachers. With the Recovery and resilience plan, I also
started to focus on internationalization of HE and brain drain. I created a scholarship scheme for
talented students and within the department I participated in the preparation of calls for the
promotion of HEI abroad, and audits of internationalization of HEI.

Horia serves as President of ESU, working in the organisation on overarching political priorities (Bologna Process, European elections etc), quality assurance of education, learning and teaching policies, digitalisation and social dimension of higher education.

He represents ESU in positions such as as co-chair of the Drafting Committee of 2024 Tirana Communique, co-chair of the Bologna Follow-Up group on Social Dimension and member of European Quality Assurance Register Board and BFUG Board.

He also follows EU developments on education funding and monitoring through National Recovery and Resilience Plans and the European Semester and has been representing ESU in the Steering Committee on Education of Council of Europe.
Horia holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Public Procurement degree from the University of Bucharest.

Francisco Pérez Cutiño works at the Agency for Scientific and University Quality of Andalusia (ACCUA) as an analyst, journalist and project manager. He recently coordinated the review of a joint-degree through the European Approach for Quality Assurance. This provided him with valuable experience at developing new internal quality assurance procedures, selecting and training the review panel, organizing the agenda for the review visit with the higher education institutions, and drafting of review reports. Francisco holds a BA in Journalism, a Master of Business Administration, speaks Spanish, English, French and Italian, and has been involved in policy making and project management for higher education since 2009.

Ana María Rivas Velasco holds a Doctoral Degree in Pharmacy and a Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science and Technology from the University of Granada. She obtained accreditation to become a Professor (Catedrática) in 2015 and was awarded the professorship in 2018. Prior to obtaining her Doctoral Degree she obtained a Predoctoral Grant for the Training of University Lecturers (FPU) and carried out research stays in international laboratories at Tufts University (Boston), the Institut Jules Bordet of the Free University of Brussels (Belgium), and the National University of Río Cuarto (Argentina). She later carried out a 3-year postdoctoral research stay at the University of Edinburgh’s Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), funded by various grants including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship from the European Union.
In terms of her teaching work, she has lectured on various undergraduate and master’s degrees including the Bachelor’s Degrees in Pharmacy; Human Nutrition and Dietetics; and Physiotherapy; as well as on the Master’s Degrees in Human Nutrition; and Advances in Food Quality and Technology

Since 2021 she has carried out several management activities as a member of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN). Moreover, she has been the Coordinator of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at the Biohealth Research Institute in Granada and a member of its Scientific Council. She is the Scientific Secretary of the UGR’s “José Mataix Verdú” Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INYTA) and was previously Coordinator and member of the Academic Committee of the Master’s Degree in Advances in Food Quality and Technology.

Juan Manuel Santiago Zaragoza is Profesor Titular de Universidad at the Department of Graphic Expression in Architecture and Engineering
Head of the Building Engineering School and Coordinador del Master Universitario En Rehabilitación Arquitectónica at the
International School for Postgraduate Studies (EIP)

Prior to joining EQAR, Magalie worked as Higher Education Policy Advisor for the Ministry of Education and Training of Belgium (Flemish community) for more than 13 years.

Not only did she thus represent Belgium (Flemish community) at the EQAR General Assembly, the Members’ Dialogue and even a number of times as observer to the Register Committee, but she also represented the interests of the Flemish Ministry at the Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG) and many of its working groups.

Within the Bologna Process, Magalie currently co-chairs the Thematic Peer Group on Quality Assurance as well as the Bologna Coordination Group on Global Policy Dialogue. She is also a member of the Working Group on Learning and Teaching, the Bologna Implementation Coordination Group, the task force on Enhancing Knowledge Sharing in the EHEA community and the BFUG Board.

Magalie started her career at Ghent University as policy officer in quality assurance and internationalisation.

Aleksandar is currently an Institutional Coordinator of the University of Rijeka for involvement in one of the European Universities initiatives – Young Universities for the Future of Europe (YUFE).

He received his masters’ degree in Philosophy and English language and literature at the University of Rijeka (teaching track).

During his studies, Aleksandar was active in numerous student organisations and representation bodies at different levels, including serving as a president of the Croatian Students’ Council, an Executive Committee member of the European Students’ Union (ESU) and a Steering Committee member of the Quality Assurance Student Experts Pool.

Aleksandar is also a certified expert in external evaluation of quality assurance systems of the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education and was, until 2021, a member of ENQA’s pool of student experts for external review of quality assurance agencies. As a reviewer, he participated in reviews in Croatia, international institutional and agency reviews and thematic international evaluations on the topic of student-centred learning.

Melinda has done her master studies in Educational Management in Romania and complemented her degree with studies in political science at the Universite Libré de Bruxelles. She previously worked in the Bologna Follow-Up Group Secretariat in providing support for the activities of the Working Groups and Networks (mainly the Social Dimension Working Group and Network of Experts on Student Support in Europe).

Kinga Szuly is Head of Sector, Higher Education Policy at the European Commission Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) since November 2017.

The sector provides, among other tasks, policy support to member states; ensures Commission representation in the Bologna Process; cooperates with international organization like OECD to provide evidence-based research on the field of higher education.

Before joining DG EAC, Kinga was working at various fields at the Commission, including Political Adviser at the Representation of the European Commission in Budapest, media analysis and internal audit.

Blazhe holds a master degree in corporate law (LLM) from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Before joining EQAR he worked as a Review Officer at MusiQuE – Music Quality Enhancement, quality assurance agency for higher music education. Blazhe also served as Vice President of the European Students’ Union (2015-2017).

Beate Treml  is Vice-Chair of the EQAR Register Committee and has been working at the OeAD, Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation, Bologna Service Office since May 2019, supporting Austrian HEIs in implementing the Bologna Process.

In addition, she has been active as an independent consultant on higher education policy and trainer in students’ organisations’ capacity building in Austria and internationally since 2014.

Beate was involved in student representation on the local, national and European level, mainly working on issues of quality assurance and enhancement. She served as the International Officer of the Austrian Students Union (ÖH) in 2014/15 and as a member of the Steering Committee of the European Students’ Union’s (ESU) Students Experts’ Pool on Quality Assurance in 2015 and 2016.

From 2011 to 2016 she was a member of the General Meeting and the Governing Committee of AQ Austria. Beate has contributed to research on QA from a student perspective that was presented in conferences such as the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) and the EAIR Forum.

She is a Master student in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Graz, Austria, from which she received her BA in Economics in 2010.

Sandra holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University “SS. Cyril and Methodius”-Skopje and a master’s degree in educational policies and development from the University of Oslo, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Malta.

She worked in the civil society sector in North Macedonia for a few years, participating in several research projects about higher education, exploring topics such as malpractices in academia, disadvantaged groups in higher education, student services and guidance, student activism and organising. Before joining the Secretariat, Aleksandra worked as a consultant at the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills.