Speakers

Julie Anderson works within the European Commission’s higher education policy team in DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. In this role, she contributes to the realisation of the European Strategy for Universities, with specific responsibility for the development of policies on quality assurance, environmental sustainability, and learning and teaching. Prior to this role, Julie worked for the Irish Department of Education and Skills, most recently as the Education and Skills Attaché in the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU. In this role, she was Chair of the EU’s Education Committee during the Irish EU Presidency and a Vice-Chair of the OECD’s Education Policy 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 (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.

Goran Dakovic is Head of Agency Reviews at the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), where he oversees the external reviews of quality assurance agencies against the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). Prior to this position, he worked as a Reviews Manager at ENQA, and as a Policy & Project Officer for the Institutional Development Unit at the European University Association (EUA), where he focused on areas such as quality assurance, learning & teaching and recognition of qualifications and of prior learning. During his work at EUA, Goran was also involved with the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP), where he worked mostly on system reviews of higher education sectors.

Before joining ENQA and EUA, Goran held the position of Head of Research Unit at the International School for Social and Business Studies in Slovenia. He has also served as an external assessor of applications for the “HR Excellence in Research Award” since 2015. Goran holds a master’s degree in Public Policies from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

Vanessa Debiais-Sainton is Head of the Unit in charge of European higher Education policies and programme at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. The unit is the lead service for the development of the European Education Area’s higher education dimension, including the European Strategy for Universities presented in January 2022. This includes the development and implementation of flagship initiatives such as: ‘European Universities’ alliances, a joint European degree, the European student card initiative, a European Approach to Micro-credentials, the automatic recognition of higher education qualifications, tracking graduates and the higher education strand of Erasmus+.

In previous posts in the European Commission, Vanessa has worked in DG Research and Innovation. Before moving to the European Commission in 2006, Vanessa spent eight years working for several chemical companies.

Tomáš Fliegl is a vice-chair of the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education (NAB), national quality assurance authority for higher education in Czechia.

His previous career has been with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports as the Director of the Office of the Minister, Head of Strategy Unit in the Department of Higher Education, and policy analyst in Higher Education.

He co-authored Strategic plan of the ministry for higher education for the period from 2021. He graduated from Economic Policy and Sociology (bachelor) and Public and Social Policy (master). His scientific interest has been the impact of fees for excessive study duration on time to degree on universities and he is a co-author of the first Czech publication on higher education drop-out.

Seasoned Project manager and Semantic consultant. Leading development teams involved in knowledge development projects focused on the labour market, digital transformation and education – Namely, the Qualification Dataset Register or European Learning Model. Participating in such initiatives as ESCO, Europass2, EU Digital Credentials or SEMIC for the last 10 years.

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 and project officer at EURASHE, and as President of the European Students’ Union (ESU), being responsible for the coordination of its policy work. In these roles, he has contributed to relevant policy documents and initiatives in the field of higher education.

Fernando has been a member of the BFUG board and of different expert groups of the European Union, the Council of Europe, UNESCO and the OECD, as well as of quality assurance agencies and universities among others.

Karolina is director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, since 2012. She has been working at the Ministry since 1998, always in the field of higher education. She holds an MA degree from Charles University in Theory of Culture

Anna Gover is the Director of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). In this role she manages the work of the ENQA Secretariat, works with the ENQA Board to translate the strategic plan into activities for the benefit of the ENQA membership, and represents ENQA in events and meetings across Europe and beyond. In addition she coordinates ENQA’s input to quality assurance policy developments within the European Higher Education Area and internationally.

Anna has almost 10 years of experience working in quality assurance of higher education, and previously worked for the European University Association (EUA).

Sophie Guillet currently works at the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (Hcéres) in France, within the Department for European and International Affairs, where she is a project manager in charge of the agency’s relations and development. She thus regularly represents the Hcéres in European and international networks (ENQA, INQAAHE…) and events. She is notably in charge of representing France in the thematic peer group on quality assurance of the Bologna Follow-up Group, where the evaluation of European university alliances and joint programmes through the European Approach are discussed.

Prior to this, she gained experience in quality assurance while working on international projects as a higher education consultant for UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning and for the World Bank. Sophie has a background in international social and public policy and is an alumna of the London School of Economics (UK) and Université PSL (France).

Ronny Heintze is the Deputy Director for International Development at AQAS, the largest German accreditation agency. In his 12 years of service, he coordinated more then 150 accreditation procedures in and outside Germany with a special focus on Joint Programmes. His international experiences cover projects across Europe, the ASEAN region, GCC states and South America. He server as an expert in different projects of the European Commission with experience in Egypt and the Republic of Moldova. He is a Board Member of the European Consortium for Accreditation (ECA) where he currently chairs the Certification Group responsible for excellency in Internationalization. Ronny also supports the Boards of HCERES (France) and YÖKAK (Turkey). For ENQA he reviewed numerous agencies on their alignment with the ESG and serves in the Agency Review Committee.  He currently reaches about the United Nations at the University of Trier. Before joining the QA community he held executive positions at NMUN in New York, organizing the worlds largest Model UN conference hosted by the United Nations. He holds a MA degree of the University of Bonn in Political Science, Psychology and Media Science.

Main responsibilities:

• Methodological and informational support of higher educational institutions of Kazakhstan in the implementation of the key parameters of the Bologna process, in assessing the quality of education in the context of the Bologna process;
• Monitoring the implementation of the academic exchange program of professor-teaching staff;
• Monitoring the implementation of the social responsibility/inclusion program of higher educational institutions of Kazakhstan;
• Monitoring the implementation of the program for attracting scientists from abroad;
• Making analytics, user research and filling with content the state educational website “Study in Kazakhstan” designed to attracting international students;
• Study of international practice in the creation and maintenance of educational websites and preparation of terms of reference and recommendations for the modernization of the state website.

Also specialize in:

• Non-formal and informal education;
• Design and use of digital technologies in relation to learning and education.

Education

• MSc in Education, Learning, Technology and Society. University of Bristol, UK
• Winner of international scholarship program “Bolashak”

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.

Erik Stein is assistant director for Evaluations and Analysis at NOKUT. His work has focused on development of NOKUTs approach to evaluations of quality in education and the use of register and survey data for monitoring and analysing aspects of quality. He has a phd in genetics from the Agricultural University of Norway.

The main policy maker for Department of Quality of Education of Accreditations of Charles University focused on international cooperation. His responsibilities range from keeping up to date with latest policy development in European Area and incorporating it into the CU’s own internal regulations, methodological support to academics seeking to establish a cooperation with HEIs from abroad, and subsequent quality assurance of already established collaborations.

Linda Messas is the Director of MusiQuE – MusiQuE Quality Enhancement, a foundation working internationally to uphold and advance the quality of music education. Linda is also General Manager/Deputy CEO of the European Association of Conservatoires (AEC), which brings together about 300 higher music education institutions. Linda has played a key role in the development of AEC’s quality assurance activities since she joined the association in 2007 and in the establishment of MusiQuE as a foundation in 2014. She is a former Board member of the European Alliance for Subject-Specific and Professional Accreditation and Quality Assurance.

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.

As Vice President of ESU, Horia coordinates the Quality Assurance of Higher Education clusters, represents ESU as co-chair of the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) Working Group on Social Dimension, and follows other policy developments such as EU developments on education funding through National Recovery and Resilience Plans and the European Semester.

He has been involved in the student movement for over eight years, serving as president of the National Alliance of Student Organisations in Romania, representing ANOSR in the national QA Agency board and coordinating portfolios such as Bologna Process implementation in Romania.

Armando Pires is a full professor in the area of Electrical Engineering at the Setúbal Polytechnic Institute in Portugal and Senior Researcher and Coordinator of the Energy Group at CTS/UNINOVA (Universidade Nova de Lisboa). He is the current President of EURASHE and Head of International Affairs of the Portuguese Polytechnics Coordinating Council (CCISP).

Armando served on various higher education and quality assurance-related positions in the past, for example as member of the Board of the Portuguese Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), as President and Vice-President of Setúbal Polytechnic, Vice-President of CCISP and Vice-President of EURASHE.

Armando was also a President and Vice-President of the Ibero-American Association of Engineering Education Institutions (ASIBEI) and a Board member of the Portuguese Language Universities Association (AULP).

Martin Prchal is vice-principal at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Trained as a musician of Czech origin, he hold teaching and performance diplomas (violoncello) and a MA degree in musicology. He served as the first Chief Executive of the European Association of Conservatoires (AEC_ from 2001-2011. Martin was also one of the founders of MusiQuE – Music Quality Enhancement and has served as peer reviewer and board member for various national quality assurance agencies in Europe. His current post includes curriculum development and innovation, research, quality assurance and international relations.

Dagmar Provijn was involved in the development of the new Quality Assurance System Flanders – 2019-2025, is (co-)author of several of its frameworks, takes part in its implementation and will be engaged in its evaluation process. He is secretary of the Resonance Group that is aimed at consulting the Flemish stakeholders on important policy changes planned by NVAO or on the developments in the system of external quality assurance in Flanders. Internationally, he is representative for NVAO Flanders in the Quality Audit Network, acted as process coordinator for one of the pilot procedures in the EUniQ project on the external quality assurance of European Universities, is member of ENQA’s Working Group on micro-credentials and their quality assurance and he is NVAO Flanders’ responsible for the implementation of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes and ECA’s Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation and is member of its Certification Group. He is also facilitator of ECA’s Training Academy ‘Assessing the Quality of Internationalisation’.

Ariadna Strugielska is a member of the Polish Accreditation Committee and deputy chair of PKA’s section for humanities and theological sciences. Prior to this, she was for many years involved in internal and external quality assurance at programme and institutional levels.

A cognitive linguist and head of the Department of English Language and Linguistics at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Ariadna combines experience in PKA with her research interests, including pluricultural and translingual communication, the CEFR and education policies in Europe, and comparability of language qualifications in Ukraine and Poland. She has co-created international projects on developing intercultural and digital competences of European teachers of English (DICETE and DIGITALTED) and contributed to the OCTRA initiative for online  course catalogues and databases for transparency and recognition of higher education qualifications.

As a teacher at a YUFE university, Ariadna firmly believes in higher education without borders and sees the European Approach as a natural way for assuring its quality.

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.

Nadejda Velisco has a significant experience in coordination of reforms for higher education level in the Republic of Moldova: implementation of Bologna process in higher education system, coordination in improving quality assurance and establishment of National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Research (ANACEC), coordination of external evaluation and accreditation programs in cooperation with international QA Agencies ARACIS (2013-2014), AQAS (2015-2016) and EKKA (2014-2015), development of qualifications frameworks, in-service and pre service formation activities of teachers, coordination of implementation of III cycle, doctoral studies, research policy etc.

Aleksandra Zhivkovikj joined the Secretariat in July 2020. She 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 has been working 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, access for disadvantaged groups, 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.

Aleksandar Šušnjar received his masters’ degree in Philosophy and English language and literature (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.

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).