December is not only a month of celebration, but sadly also a time for the ACA Secretariat to say goodbye to two key members of its staff. Senior Officer Maria Kelo and Policy Officer Chripa Schneller will be leaving the Secretariat at the end of this year.

Maria Kelo joined ACA in 2003 from EURYDICE, where she worked as a researcher. She became the driving force behind many ACA studies and events, and authored publications like Support for International Students in Higher Education. Practice and Principles (2006), in the series of ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education, co-edited EURODATA - Student mobility in European higher education (2006), and edited The Future of the University. Translating Lisbon into Practice (2006), to name just a few titles.

Chripa Schneller joined ACA in 2007 and brought new dynamism to the Secretariat, through her multicultural background and international experience in the private sector. She has organised and represented ACA at various international meetings and has been in charge of several projects in the field of promotion of European higher education, among them a pilot project for the set-up of “Study in Europe Promotion Networks” world-wide, the “Database on Education Exchange Programmes (run by ASEF) and, most recently, “ScholarshipPortal.eu”, a European mobility grants portal. She is also the main author of the ACA Handbook of International Associations in Higher Education (2009)

The Secretariat is truly indebted to both of them and sincerely thanks them for all their hard work and commitment. At the same time, it wishes them best of luck in the future.