Speakers

Eltjo has has been working in quality assurance of higher education since 2011. He is active in internal and external quality assurance, both at programme and institutional level. He also has experience in execution and system development.

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 started her career at the University of Zagreb and moved to the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) in 2005 after its establishment. Since then, she has been working in the field of quality assurance in HE.

During the first years at the agency, she was included in the setting up of the national QA scheme in HE in line with ESG and good international practices. Her work and topics of interest are especially related to institutional and program accreditations, and in recent years, to the implementation of the CroQF, the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint programmes and cross-border evaluations.

She 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 at national and international level. She is very passionate about quality assurance issues and witnessed the impact that these processes can have on the development of quality in HE at a national level.

Sandra Bezjak was a member of the ENQA Agency Review Committee in its first term (2021-2023) and participated as expert in several ENQA agency reviews (as a panel member, secretary and a chair). She also participated in several international projects with a focus on strengthening some of the EHEA agencies and their alignment with ESG, especially in the region of South-Eastern Europe.

She obtained a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and a Master of Science degree in Biotechnical Sciences, both from the University of Zagreb.

Tamara is 25 and she is studying Sustainable Development and Environmental Management within the “Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca. Her journey in the student movement began in early 2017, within the Student Organization of Babeș- Bolyai University (OSUBB), where she developed a passion for educational policies. During her bachelor’s degree in law, being dedicated to her objectives, Tamara got involved in the student movement at the national level. That is why she has served as Vice President for Educational Policies and then Vice President for International Affairs within The National Alliance of Student Organizations in Romania (ANOSR).

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.

Cristina Ghițulică has been representing the Romanian Ministry of Education in the Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG) since 2012 and was co-chair of the BFUG during the Romanian Presidency to the Council of the European Union (1st of January – 30th of June 2019). Starting this year, she is vice-chair of the BFUG, and since 2021 co-chair of the Thematic Peer Group C on Quality Assurance. Between 2021 and 2024, she was also the co-chair of the Task Force on Enhancing Knowledge Sharing in the EHEA community. She also represents the ministry in the OECD Group of National Experts in Higher Education since 2021.

Cristina Ghițulică has extensive experience in the field of quality assurance, being general director (2022 – present), vice-president (2015 – 2021) and member of the Council of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) (2013 – 2014), as well as an external evaluator and member of the Distance Education Experts Permanent Commission, since 2009. She was the president of the Central and Eastern European Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (CEENQA), and since 2014, she has been a member of the network board. She was elected in 2018 as a member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) Board, and since 2019, she has been vice-president of the association. She is also a member of the High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education Council (HCERES France) since 2020.

She also was director of the Romanian Minister of National Education office for more than seven years and has coordinated the higher education components of World Bank-financed programs implemented by the ministry since 2003. Cristina Ghitulica has a more than 25 years-long academic career in the field of Chemical Engineering at the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest.  In 2004, the Romanian Presidency awarded her the Order “Education Merit” Great Officer rank.

Diane Freiberger has been involved in higher education for more than 25 years. She started as a lecturer at the Catholic Academy for Social Work in Munich. After that, she took a brief detour into business and was a PR manager for six years. In 2006, she returned to the field of university management. Before she took over the management of FIBAA in 2020, Diane Freiberger was Managing Director of the Business School at the FH Kufstein Tirol University of Applied Sciences in Austria and Vice Rector at the same university for five years. In the course of all these activities, Diane Freiberger has been involved in quality assurance issues, especially in the area of digital transformation of teaching and learning. In recent years, she has been involved in national and international study projects and conferences on and has published about these topics.

Céline Jambon is currently a policy officer in the “Skills Agenda” Unit of the European Commission (Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion).

As a member of the team working on “transparency of skills and qualifications”, her work focuses on “qualifications, learning opportunities and credentials” in Europass, and in particular on the European Digital Credentials for Learning.

Before taking that position, she worked in different services of the European Commission, in particular in the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and in the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. Prior to joining the European Commission, Céline worked as EU project officer at a scientific foundation and at the French Public Employment Service. She holds a MA in European Studies and a BA in English literature, linguistics and civilisation.

Sophia Karner is Senior Policy Officer at Una Europa, the alliance’s central office in Brussels. In her role, Sophia is responsible for strengthening Una Europa’s policy positioning and advocacy work towards EU and international policymakers.

Sophia advises on the setting of strategic policy priorities of the alliance, provides external policy expertise to Una Europa senior management, and drives forward collaboration with key stakeholders in Brussels and beyond. This includes the coordination of Una Europa’s work on relevant EU policy files, such as quality assurance and the European Degree.

Sophia has been working in Brussels in various policy-related roles linked to regional and university representation offices for the past ten years.

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.

Kia has built her career as a consultant for a variety of EU projects. Specialised in the Digital Labour Market, she focuses on the role of (micro)credentialling to support education and labour mobility and recognition. She is currently responsible for authoring technical documentation and communication materials and delivering these to a diverse group of stakeholders via online publications, presentations and webinars. She is providing support for the European Digital Credentials for Learning and Europass projects. With a strong background in user support and communications, she is a key contributor to the outreach of the European Learning Model and the lead facilitator of European Digital Credentials for Learning adoption.

Maria Manatos is the Coordinator of the Studies and Analysis Office of A3ES and a Manager of the Assessment /Accreditation Processes. She holds a doctoral degree in Management from the ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon. Her doctoral research discussed the integration of quality management policies and practices in higher education institutions.

She was a researcher at the​ Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), in Portugal. She has worked as an expert for international organisations in the higher education field. She has published her work in higher education and quality management journals.

Giorgi Munjishvili joined the EQAR Secretariat in January 2024.

Giorgi holds a master degree in Education Administration from the Ilia State University in Tbilisi (Georgia) and did a one-year mobility in Political Sciences at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Germany). Giorgi worked at the European University in Tbilisi as Head of the Strategic Development Office, and before that as Head of Quality Assurance and Strategic Development.

He also worked at NCEQE, the National Center For Educational Quality Enhancement (one of EQAR’s registered agencies) as Deputy Head of Planning, Research, and International Relations.

Andreas Neuhold works at the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research. He is in the department responsible for universities of applied sciences, private colleges, quality assurance, accreditation and lifelong learning in higher education.

Prior to that, he worked for many years in the quality assurance agencies responsible for external quality assurance of higher education institutions in Austria. He studied pedagogy, philosophy and sociology.

Lana has been active in the student movement for the last five years. She started as president of the student council at the University of Rijeka and, as a member of the Croatian Students’ Council, she was active in advocacy on both national and European levels.

Through her work in ESU she focuses on Quality of Education, Learning and Teaching and Student-centered Learning, Micro-credentials, Digitalisation, Recognition and the developments of the European Education Area.

Lana is finishing her degree in Biotechnology and Drug Research.

Hanna has 20 years’ experience in the field of higher education and recognition of foreign qualifications. She was a member of the NARIC Advisory Board. From 2018 till 2024 she represented the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the Bologna Thematic Peer Group B on Key Commitment 2: National legislation and procedures compliant with the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

She was involved in numerous international and international projects aiming at facilitating recognition. At the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) she was responsible for creating electronic tools to practically implement automatic recognition (KWALIFIKATOR ) and fully digitalize the process of issuing individual recognition statements ( SYRENA ). She was involved in drafting the legislation regarding recognition and higher education in 2009-2010 and 2017-2018.

Sebastian Steele has been Project Manager at the Swedish Higher Education Authority(UKÄ) for almost six years. Within this role, Sebastian has completed multiple assessments of Swedish HEI in both institutional reviews and programme evaluations. Sebastian is currently investigating the possibility of implementing the European Approach in Sweden as well as being responsible for other internationalisation questions. Sebastian is also a board member of The European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education (ECA) .”

Michael Stephan has been working for a publishing company for several years, among other activities researching, co-writing and co-editing guides about study programmes in business, economics, and engineering. Before joining FIBAA in 2021, he has been working for six years for an international corporate HR quality assurance enterprise. At FIBAA, Michael Stephan has been conducting national as well as international accreditation and certification projects as a project manager and took over the position as division manager certifications in 2022. In this task, he is in charge of the FIBAA quality seals “for certified continuing education courses” and “Excellence in Digital Education”®.

Prior to this, Aleksandar was the YUFE (European Universities Alliance) Institutional Coordinator of the University of Rijeka (UNIRI), in which capacity he coordinated the involvement of UNIRI in the YUFE Alliance and worked on the European degree initiative, development of YUFE educational offer and multilateral mobility schemes.

His professional experience includes contribution to European projects, policy-making bodies and expert groups dealing with inter-institutional cooperation, quality of higher education, social dimension, student engagement, and qualification frameworks. Between 2021 and 2024, he was a member of the EQAR Register Committee.

Aleksandar Šušnjar is a Master of Arts (Philosophy and English language and literature – teaching track) at the University of Rijeka and is currently following a PhD programme in Philosophy at the same university.

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.