Han Aarts

Han Aarts is director of the Maastricht University centre for international cooperation in academic development (MUNDO). Han Aarts has a Master degree in human geography and development studies (Free University of Amsterdam, 1984). After his studies he spent several years with Nuffic, where he was introduced to university development cooperation. He has been working with Maastricht University since 1987, coordinating the university’s international office until 1997, and directing Mundo since then. Mundo is exclusively focusing on cooperation with partner universities in the developing world. In various capacities Han Aarts has been involved in collaborative projects with universities in, among other places, El Salvador, Kenya, South Africa, Vietnam, Mozambique, Indonesia, with the main aim of local capacity development. Han Aarts is also strongly involved in the European Association for International Education, as executive board member in the past and as co-founder and leading member of the Educational cooperation with Developing Countries (EDC) section at present.

Professor Louise Ackers is Chair in European Socio-Legal Studies and Director of the European Law and Policy Research Group at the University of Liverpool. Her recent work has focused on researcher careers with an emphasis on scientific mobility and internationalisation. Her most recent book ‘Moving People and Knowledge’ (2008, Edward Elgar) discusses the processes of scientific  mobility drawing on an empirical study of Bulgarian and Polish scientists working in (or returning from) the UK and Germany. She also directed a study on doctoral mobility in the social sciences (NOIRFACE, 2008) and is currently completing work on a second impact assessment of the European Commission’s Marie Curie Programme.

Her current work focuses on the relationship between mobilities and internationalisation. This study is designed to clarify the relationships that exist between different forms of contemporary mobilities and notions of internationalisation and excellence to avoid the implementation of narrow and potentially discriminatory metrics.

Full details of this work can be found on the ELPRG website: www.liv.ac.uk/law/elprg

Mr. Arıkan has received his B.Sc(1964),Msc(1966) and Ph.D.(1971) degrees in Electrical Engineering at Middle East Technical  University(METU) in Ankara TURKEY.In 1964 he started working at METU as an research assistant and after receiving his Ph.D. degree as an asistant Professor and then as an Associate Professor until 1982 .  In 1982 he decided  to leave academic environment and work in industry as a scientist.He first worked at a military electronics company ASELSAN A.S as a research manager until 1988. In 1988 he became the founder General Manager of ROKETSAN A.Ş.

In 1991 he joined BARMEK GROUP as a General Coordinator and worked there until 1996. After serving as the Vice President of Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey ,TUBITAK for 4 years, he then joined Sabanci University in January 2000 as the Director of Research and Graduate Policy.

Jordi Bascompte is Professor at the Spanish Research Council in Sevilla, Spain, where he leads an international and interdisciplinary group on ecological networks.  He obtained his PhD in Biology by the University of Barcelona (1994), and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Irvine (1996-1997), and at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara (1998 -1999).  He has been awarded with the European Young Investigator Award (2004), and the Ecological Society of America’s George Mercer Award (2007). He is the Ideas and Perspectives Editor at Ecology Letters and a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors at Science. He has co-edited or co-authored the books Modelling Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Ecology (Springer-Verlag, 1998), and Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems (Princeton University Press, 2006).

Guido Bonino is a consultant for the RAICES Programme of Argentina´s Ministry of Science Technology and Productive Innovation since 2005. He participated in the implementation of the Programme´s guidelines, actions and efforts towards vinculating argentinean scientists living and working abroad with Argentina´s science and technology system. He holds a Bachelor degree in Environmental Sciences from El Salvador University.

Dr. Rajika Bhandari is Deputy Vice President of Research and Evaluation at IIE. In addition to IIE’s flagship research project, Open Doors, she directs Project Atlas, a global student mobility data collection initiative. She also oversees program evaluations of IIE’s international educational and professional exchange programs. She brings to the project 15 years of experience in conducting and directing educational research in the U.S. and in India. Dr. Bhandari also brings to her position extensive expertise in conducting research and program evaluation for the U.S. Department of Education, in particular the National Center for Education Statistics. Dr. Bhandari earned a Ph.D. in Psychology at North Carolina State University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Delhi. 

Christian Bode has been Secretary General of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) since 1990. DAAD is one of the largest scholarship organization for international mobility and cooperation with more than 250 programs out of and into Germany, and over 67,000 scholarships per year. It also runs many initiatives to internationalize German higher education, and to increase its global attractiveness.

Christian Bode was educated in law and received his Ph.D from the University of Bonn in 1971. Between 1972 and 1982 he held different senior positions in the Federal Ministry of Education and Science. From 1982 until 1990 he was Secretary General of the (West-) German Rectors` Conference.
Christian Bode was one of the founders of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) and was Vice President of ACA several times.

He has published widely on all aspects of higher education policy, with a special focus on internationalization. He is a member of several administrative boards and professional societies and was rewarded several honorary doctorates and numerous other distinctions.

Dr. Sabine Behrenbeck is  since 2004  Head of Department “Higher Education” and Project Director of the “Excellence Initiative” with the German Council of Science and Humanities in Cologne. From 1999 to 2004 she worked as Program Director of “Collaborative Research Centres” and as coordinator of the program “DFG-Research Centres” with the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) in Bonn.

Sabine Behrenbeck  received her PhD 1993 from the University of Cologne in Modern History, having studied History, History of Arts, and Theology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn and at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome (1980 – 1987). After her Mater of Arts, she prerpared historical and cultural exhibitions in Bonn, Oberhausen and Dresden (1987 – 1995). She worked as a Postdoc from 1995 to 1996 in the group of Prof. Dr. Heinz Dieter Kittsteiner, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/ Oder, on “Theories of Conscience in 19th and 20th Century”, then changed to the University of Cologne as Project Manager of the research group of Prof. Dr. Klaus Mackscheidt, Department of Financial Science, on “European Integration between harmonisation and diversity” (1996 – 1998).

Michael Bruneforth is programme specialist at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in Montréal (Canada). Leading a team of statisticians responsible for UNESCO’s comparative education data for Asia, the Pacific Europe and the America, he is also responsible for the development of indicators and methodology on administrative data, especially education expenditure foreign and mobile students. Before joining the UIS in 2003, Mr. Bruneforth worked on comparative education statics at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Mr. Bruneforth is in charge for UIS with the joint UIS/OECD/EUROSTAT data collection on education statistics, the main source for international statics on mobile students. He also contributed to the development of indicators and statistics on foreign and mobile students for the UIS Global Education Digest, OECD’s Education at a Glance.

Hans de Wit is since 2009 professor of Internationalisation at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. He is also a private consultant. He is the co-editor of the ‘Journal of Studies in International Education’ (Association for Studies in International Education/SAGE publishers).

He was founding dean of Windesheim Honours College of the VU Amsterdam/Windesheim Hogeschool, Zwolle. Before, he was director of the Hague Forum for Judicial Expertise in 2005-2006. He has been director of the Office of Foreign Relations, vice-president for International Affairs and senior adviser International at the University of Amsterdam, in the period 1986-2005, and director of International Relations at Tilburg University in 1981-1985. He has a bachelor, master and PhD from the University of Amsterdam.

He has written several books and articles on international education and is actively involved in assessment and consultancy in international education, for organisations like the European Commission, World Bank, IMHE/OECD, and ESMU. He has undertaken Quality Reviews of a great number of institutions of higher education in the framework of the Visiting Advisors Program (VAP), IQRP, IQR, Eurostrat, and is involved in a pilot project for a European label on internationalisation for degree programs, for the Dutch Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO).

Hans de Wit is founding member and past president of the European Association for International Education (EAIE). Currently he is, among other positions, member of the Board of Trustees of World Education Services (New York).

Robert Gutierrez is Senior Manager of Research and Evaluation at the Institute of International Education. In this capacity, he has led a number of government and foundation-supported research projects and program evaluations for sponsors including the U.S. Departments of State and Education, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and DAAD. He also manages projects related to global student mobility, including Project Atlas and research on U.S. study abroad through the Meeting America’s Global Education Challenge policy research series and is a frequent presenter at conferences on international education and exchange. Mr. Gutierrez holds an M.S. in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.A. in English and Spanish from the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Hoffmann, since 2004 Executive Director of the German-American Fulbright Commission in Berlin, studied biological sciences at Duke University (N.C., USA) and the University of Tübingen and received his doctoral degree in 1983. He worked as assistant professor of zoology at the University of Karlsruhe and later joined the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn as policy and program officer and later as deputy head of the Selection Department. Since 1991, he has gained extensive experience in higher education policy and management in different senior positions mainly with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Space Agency (DARA) and as Director of the German-American Academic Council in Bonn and Washington, D.C.

In 2001 Dr. Hoffmann was appointed Director of Germany’s new International Marketing Initiative, a joint effort of the Federal Government, the universities and DAAD for the international promotion of study and research in Germany. Until 2004 he also headed the German university marketing consortium GATE Germany with more than 100 member institutions. Rolf Hoffmann has been serving as a higher education and marketing expert for many national and international agencies in Europe and in the U.S.

Ross Hudson is a Programme Officer at the International Association of Universities (IAU) where he is in charge of developing the association’s work on internationalization. Recent activities have included the IAU 3rd Global Survey on Internationalization of Higher Education, and the new IAU Internationalization Strategies Advisory Service (ISAS). He has a Masters degree in International Development from University of Sussex and worked previously at University of Brighton developing a new internationalization strategy for the university, and as a lecturer. Ross Hudson has also worked for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nairobi, Kenya.

Neil Kemp is an international higher education consultant and Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London. His professional interests and publications relate to the internationalisation of education, higher education policy, the role of the independent sector in higher education, particularly in developing countries, international student mobility and transnational education. His first employment was as an apprentice in industry and, after a physical sciences degree, completed a PhD in electron spectroscopy at the University of Wales (Swansea). He subsequently developed an interest in the economics of education and education planning.

He has contributed to a wide range of education and training projects in over 20 countries and has lived and worked in Asia for 20 years, including eight years each in India and Indonesia. He was responsible for developing the Education UK Partnership, managing the UK Prime Minister’s Initiative for international education (the PMI) and was professional adviser to the UK-India Education and Research Initiative. He is a Board Member of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth and the Open University Worldwide. His recent clients include a number of UK universities; the British Council and UK Government; CIRIUS Denmark; Swedish Institute; Education New Zealand and Universities UK. His main interests outside education are athletics, cycling, jazz and blues.

Irina Lungu is Policy Officer at the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). She is currently involved in the EURODATA II study on mobility developments in higher education and in the IMPI project, which aims to build a toolkit of indicators for mapping and profiling the internationalisation strategies and processes of European HEIs. She also co-authored ACA’s Handbook of International Associations in Higher Education (2009) and is involved in other ongoing projects. Irina, who is a Romanian national, studied International Relations and European Studies at the Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca and obtained a Masters degree in European Politics and Policies at the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven.

Mònica Margarit is the (founding) Director of Universidad.es. Born in 1964, she studied Romance Philology at the University of Barcelona and earned a certificate of Research Proficiency by the same university. She conducted additional research in various European universities (Sorbonne, Bologna, Milan, Konstanz) on scholarships from national and international organisations.  She became Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Science Policy and Foreign Cooperation of the University of Barcelona in 1992, and Director of International Relations in 1995.

She has been a member of the Spanish University Association for International Relations since 1992, and continues with this work on the current sectoral committee for international relations (CEURI) of the Conference of Rectors of the Spanish Universities (CRUE).

Madrileño by birth and Cordobian by choice, Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé is the Democratic Government’s tenth Minister of Foreign Affairs—the fifth to also work as a professional diplomat, and the first to simultaneously serve as Minister of Cooperation. He assumed the position on April 18, 2004, after entering the political arena to fulfill his commitment to the foreign policy objectives set by the Rodríguez Zapatero administration.

Minister Moratinos graduated in Law and Political Science from the Complutense University of Madrid and began his career as a young diplomat at the Spanish Embassies in Yugoslavia and Morocco. He was then named Deputy Director General for North Africa in 1987, Director General for Cooperation with the Arab World in 1991, and Director General of Foreign Policy for Africa and the Middle East in 1993.

After a brief but intense stint as Ambassador to Israel in 1996, he was appointed by the European Union as Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, where he served diligently until June of 2003.  Moratinos provided constant support in helping Israelis and Palestinians reach agreements during brighter days at the Oslo negotiations, and was frequently the only channel for dialogue between the two groups during more difficult times.

He was elected to Congress by Córdoba during the General Elections of March 14, 2004. Moratinos was re-appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation during the General Elections of March 9th, 2008..

Minister Moratinos speaks fluent English and French, and has knowledge of other languages, including Serbo-Croatian and Arabic. He is married to professor Dominique Maunac and has three children.

José Manuel Roldán Nogueras has served as the rector of the Universidad de Córdoba (UCO) since 2006. Since joining the UCO faculty in 1980, he has been responsible for a variety of academic and administrative areas across the university, including Vice-Rector for Student Participation and Engagement, Athletics Director, and Vice- Rector for Faculty and Academic Organization. A biologist by training, he has held the title of university professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UCO since 1995. Dr. Roldán Nogueras has also held academic and research appointments at the Universidad de Sevilla and the University of California, San Diego.

Laura E. Rumbley came to ACA from the Boston College Center for International Higher Education (CIHE) in the United States. At CIHE, Laura led the Center’s Podcast Initiative and was Managing Director of the International Network for Higher Education in Africa (INHEA). She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Boston College, teaching a graduate course on “International Policy and Practice in American Higher Education.”

Laura holds degrees from Boston College (PhD), Georgetown University (bachelor’s), and the SIT Graduate Institute (master’s), all in the areas of international relations and international education. In the early part of her career, she served as an administrator of various international education programs at Boston University in the United States. More recently, her work has been focused on research and assessment activities. She has authored and co-authored a number of publications on topics ranging from academic salaries in comparative perspective, U.S. study abroad, and internationalization in Spanish higher education. Most notably, she co-authored (with Philip G. Altbach and Liz Reisberg) the foundational document for the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution. Laura is a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer, a former Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, and a Salzburg Seminar alumna. 

Professor Peter Scott is Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University.  Prior to this he was Pro Vice-Chancellor for External Affairs at the University of Leeds.  He was also Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Policy Studies in Education.  Before going to Leeds in 1992, he was for sixteen years Editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement.

He was educated at the University of Oxford and has honorary doctorates from the University of Bath, the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, the (former) Council for National Academic Awards, Anglia Polytechnic University and Grand Valley State University.  He is also a Member of the Academia Europea and an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.

He was President of the Academic Cooperation Association from 2002 to 2008, Chair of the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning (formerly the Universities Association for Continuing Education), from 2000 until 2006 he was a member of the board of HEFCE and chaired its Quality Assurance Learning and Teaching strategic committee and was appointed as the inaugural President of the AUA (Association of University Administrators) in 2009.

He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2007 New Year Honours list for services to higher education.

His research interests are the governance and management of universities and implications for the organisational culture of universities (and academic ethos and social missions); the development of mass higher education systems in their social, economic and cultural contexts; the evolution of new patterns of knowledge production, and implications for knowledge-based organisations (including universities); the internationalisation of higher education, in response to wider phenomena of globalisation.

His most recent books are The Meanings of Mass Higher Education (1995), Governing Universities (1996), the Globalization of Higher Education (1998) and Higher Education Re-formed (2000), University Leadership: The Role of the Chief Executive (2000), Ten Years On: Higher Education in Central and Eastern Europe (2000) and Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge Production in an Age of Uncertainties (2001).

Dr. Rolf Tarrach is Rector of the University of Luxemburg and President of the Academic Cooperation Association.  Dr. Tarrach is professor of theoretical physics, and has served in that capacity at the universities of Valencia and Barcelona as well as the University of Saint Petersburg.  Many organizations have taken advantage of his breath of knowledge and his command of languages.  He is a former president of the CSIC (the Spanish Scientific Research Council), and a former member of EURAB, EUROHORCS, ESOF2004 (and 2006, and 2008).  The EU Commission has availed themselves of Dr. Tarrach’s services at various times. He is currently on the EUA Council.

Ulrich Teichler is a professor at the University of Kassel and the Director of its Centre for Research on Higher Education and Work (since 1978). He was Vice-President of the University of Kassel (1980-82) and he acted as an OECD reviewer of education policies in several countries. Next to EU and internationalisation, his research focused on admission to higher education, international academic recognition, academic staff, implementation of higher education reforms, evaluation in higher education, curricula in higher education, education and social selection, and adult education.

Professor Teichler is a member of Academia Europea and a member of the Board of the International Academy of Education. He has been the president or chair of many international research networks. He also received the Research Award of the Council on International Educational Exchange (1997) and the Comenius Prize of UNESCO (1998).

Peter van der Hijden works for the European Commission, Directorate General Research, in the Unit dealing with Universities and Researchers. Dossiers of the Unit include university funding, human resources strategies, research performance assessment, researchers’ training, -career and -mobility, all contributing to the creation of the ‘Innovation Union’ and the European Research Area (ERA).

Peter has worked for the European Commission in the field of transport (inland waterways), but his main experience lies in higher education and research: the Erasmus Programme, the modernisation agenda for universities, the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process) and the European Research Area. Peter has studied law at Nymegen, Leyden and Maastricht University. Before moving to Brussels, he worked at the University Council and the Law Research Committee of Maastricht University.

Maite is a senior consultant in the field of international education & development with extensive experience of internationalisation, marketing and recruitment in Higher Education. In 2009, she co-founded  the consultancy Your Global Liaison (YGL) to help HE institutions and governments with an international ambition respond to the broad changes in the years to come.

Educated in both Spain and Belgium, Maite has a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Masters degree in European Law. She gained her international experience in public and private posts in Brussels. She returned to Barcelona to work as Director of International Relations at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) where she created an international office, built global awareness of the institution, and successfully developed international recruitment channels and cooperative agreements, with universities all over the world.

Maite has been a founder and board member of the EAIE,s Marketing and Recruitment Professional Section (M&R)  and board member of the International Relations Commission of the Spanish Rectors’ Conference (CEURI). She has also presented at numerous international conferences and workshops. In 2009, she received the EAIE Bo Gregersen Award for Best Practice. Innovative contribution to international Education.

Bernd Wächter is the Director of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), a consortium of European and global agencies which support international cooperation in higher education. ACA is a think-tank which promotes innovation and internationalisation in higher education. Bernd was born in Giessen (Germany) and studied at the universities of Hull (UK), Giessen and Marburg (Germany).  He lives in Brussels (Belgium) and is married to Thora Magnusdottir, a delightful lady from Iceland.

Bernd’s career has been focused on international higher education. In his first post, at the University of Kassel (Germany), he devised international degree programmes in cooperation with universities abroad. He later joined the British Council, before becoming the Director of the international office of the Fachhochschule Darmstadt. Moving on to Germany’s internationalisation agency DAAD, he became the head of this organisation’s European section. He subsequently became Director of Higher Education in the Brussels Socrates Office, with overall responsibility for the Erasmus Programme in Europe. In 1998, he took up his present post as the director of ACA. Bernd has published widely on international matters in higher education, and he is a frequent speaker at European and international education conferences. He is the editor of the ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Higher Education and.  He also works, as an expert advisor, for many international organisations