Dan Brändström

Professor Dan Brändström, who obtained his Ph.D in political science in 1972, has been involved in university education both at Uppsala University and at Umeå University from 1962 onwards. He became an associate professor in 1982, holding various leading positions in both a national and international context. He has served as Director for the Professional School of Social Work and Public Administration in Umeå (1975 -1977), Director for the Regional Board for Higher Education in Northern Sweden (1977-82), Registrar and Secretary to the University of Umeå (1982-92) and CEO of the Stiftelsen  Riksbankens Jubileumsfond in Stockholm (The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, 1992-2006).

Dan Brändström has a long history of European networking, e.g. as the Chair of the European Foundation Centre (2004-2006) or as the Secretary General of the European Research Council Expert Group appointed by the Danish Minister of Education and Research (2002-03). He is still involved in various boards in Hungary, the Netherlands and Belgium. 

Anila Troshani is the Head of sector for the Erasmus Mundus Programme- Action 2 (former ECW) managed by the Educational, Audiovisual , Culture Executive Agency . Before joining the Erasmus Mundus Department she has been working in Youth programme, MEDA programme and LLP programm and DAPHNE programme managed by the DG AIDCO. During the last years Anila has managed projects involving Third – countries and has contributed to establishing the National structures and Coordinators in various Pre-accession and Mediterranean countries.

Hans Peter Jensen is the Danish Representative and vicechair of the Board of Governors of the Joint Research Centre of the European Union. He has been affiliated to the Technical University of Denmark, DTU, throughout most of his professional career, serving as DTU President (1986-2001), Chairman of the Danish Rectors’ Conference and of the Nordic University Association. Furthermore, he was Chairman of the UNESCO International Committee on Engineering Education and a member of the Higher Education and Research Committee under the Council of Europe. He was also a member of the Danish National Science Research Council, and in connection with that a member of and chairman for the Collaborative Research Grant Program Panel under the NATO Scientific Affairs Division.

Jensen, whose major scientific interest has been polarised light and its use within phase modulation spectroscopy, holds honorary doctorates from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, USA, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, and State University of New York, USA. He is furthermore decorated to the level of Commander of  the order of Dannebrog by the Queen of Denmark. He has published more than 50 scientific papers in international journals and has participated in both the national and the international debate on educational and research policies. Today, Hans Peter Jensen is the manager of one of the major, private dormitories in Copenhagen and further serves on a number of committees and boards, e.g. the Council for Internationalisation of Educations in Denmark and the Velux Foundation.

Liqiu Meng is Vice President at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), responsible for internationalization.  She has been chair professor for cartography since 1998 and was formerly Pro Dean of the School of Civil Engineering and Geodetic Engineering of TUM. She also serves as principal investigator at the International Graduate School of Science and Engineering of TUM.

She has coordinated various international projects in the field of geoinformation sciences. She was awarded Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Medal in recognition of her interational scientific promotion. She is a member in the Senate of the Helmholtz-Association of German Research Centres, responsible for the research sector “Earth and Climate” and a member in the editorial boards of three international journals.

Dr. Eirinn Larsen (1969) is currently employed as a Research Fellow at the University of Oslo, Forum for University History, Norway. She has previously worked as an Advisor for the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and contributed to the White Paper on Internationalisation of Education (St.meld. nr 14 (2008-2009). She is co-editor of Inside the Business Schools: The Content of European Management Education (2003) and has published several articles and book chapters on European business education in particular. She holds a PhD in history and civilisation from the European University Institute, Florence – Italy (2005).

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.

Dr Robert John Coelen is Vice-President International at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has worked for about 13 years in the field of international education. He returned to work in Europe after an absence of 30 years. Most of these 30 years were spent in Australia: First as an international student, fresh out of the Netherlands, next as a researcher and academic, and finally as Director International at two universities in Queensland. He spent part of the time working on developmental projects in Indonesia. Dr Coelen is a member of Club33, a global think tank on internationalisation, a member of the International Ranking Experts Group, which produced the Berlin Principles on Ranking in Higher Education, member of Editorial Committee of the European Association of International Education.

Robert Coelen is a regular speaker at international and national conferences on issues related to internationalisation of higher education. In particular ranking, international positioning, the services to international students and admission are amongst the topics he addresses. He is also the organiser of the Leiden University Global Ranking Symposium Series. He is the initiator of Euroscholars, a new study abroad education project in collaboration with 12 continental LERU universities. Dr Coelen is committed to the ideals of an internationalised higher education as the result of first-hand experience as an international student, followed by observing the development of international students in his undergraduate programmes, as well as his international Ph.D. students. The beneficial personal transformation that ensues from academic development in cultures other than one’s own is something he believes all students should experience at some time in their lives.

Torsten Kälvemark is a former Senior Adviser at the National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket) in Stockholm, Sweden. He has worked with central government agencies in the field of higher education since 1972. Between 1989 and 1992 he was serving as cultural attaché at the Embassy of Sweden in London. In 1993 he was one of the founders of ACA. He was a member of ACA’s Administrative Council 1993-2006 and also served the Association as a Vice-President. With Marijk van der Wende he edited the book National Policies for Internationalisation of Higher Education in Europe (1997). This book was a result of cooperative work within one of ACA’s working groups. 

He retired in 2007 and is now an independent consultant in the field of higher education and research. He is also chairing the Board of the Swedish Archaeological Institute in Athens.

Chripa Schneller is Policy Officer at the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). Before joining the ACA Secretariat in early 2007, she worked in the private sector in Germany, Spain and India. The responsibilities of her present position at ACA cover all aspects of the association’s policies, projects and events. She also represents ACA at various international meetings. Chripa, who is a French-German citizen of Indian descent, is the main author of the ACA Handbook of International Associations in Higher Education (2009) 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 (DEEP, by ASEF) and, most recently, “ScholarshipPortal.eu”, a European mobility grants portal.