Andrée Sursock

Andrée Sursock is Senior Adviser at the European University Association (EUA) since June 2009. She was Deputy Secretary General between 2001–09, with responsibilities for developing the EUA quality position, representing EUA in European QA policy discussions (in the E4) as well as internationally, and leading the Institutional Evaluation Programme, the quality culture project, the development of management and leadership seminars and projects examining the link between creativity and quality assurance. She was also a member of the European Quality Assurance Forum organizing committee (2002–08) and participated in the review of several quality assurance agencies. She sits on the editorial board of the Higher Education Management Journal (IMHE/OECD), the Comité de pilotage of the Agence pour l’évaluation de la qualité de l’enseignement supérieur (AEQES), French Community of Belgium and the Scientific Council of the Center of Accreditation and Quality Assurance of the Swiss Universities (OAQ). Before joining EUA, she was Director of Development at the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI, Open University, UK), and worked on several European projects related to quality assurance. She taught at a variety of US institutions, including the University of California (Berkeley and Davis), Stanford University and Foothill and De Anza community colleges. She holds a first degree in philosophy from the University of Paris I–Panthéon Sorbonne and a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Born in Spain in 1965, Spanish nationality. Graduated in Political Science and Law at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid. She holds a post-graduate degree in EU studies Free University of Brussels (ULB). She worked between 1990-1995 for the Directorate of European Affairs of the Basque Government. She joined the Commission in 1995 and spent 10 years in DG EMPL dealing inter alia, with the European Social Fund and the implementation of the European Employment Strategy. Joined the EIT in 2006, she has been responsible for the negotiations on the Regulation establishing the EIT and is currently responsible for the initial setting-up of the Institute.

Nina Salden is heading the unit for Tempus/Erasmus Mundus and EU Third Country Cooperation at the German National Agency for EU Higher Education Cooperation Programmes at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Her unit is in charge of informing and advising German Higher education institutions in applying under the aforementioned EU programmes. Ms Salden has joined the DAAD in 2007, where she was heading the section of South Eastern Europe for two years before taking up her present position in the EU department. Before joining the DAAD, Ms Salden has been working for five years at the EU liaison office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where she was dealing with EU programmes in Sub Saharan Africa and the topic of Migration and Development. Ms Salden has studied European Studies in Germany, Britain and France and is holding a Msc in European Public Policy.

Claire Morel has worked for the past 15 years in the field of international cooperation in education and training. Before joining the European Commission, she worked at the European Training Foundation, and agency of the EU based in Turin, on the modernisation of vocational education and training systems in the Eastern neighbouring countries. She then moved to DG Education and Culture (DG EAC) and started to work for the Tempus programme (for higher education modernisation) dealing mainly with the Central Asian region, and on improving the programme’s external communication. She is now deputy head of the international cooperation unit in DG EAC and her work concentrates on international policy dialogue in education and training.

Filip Van Depoele (born 1970 in Ghent, Belgium) is an economist by training (University of Leuven, Belgium) and subsequently studied European Economic Integration (College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium) and International Relations (Johns Hopkins University, Bologna, Italy). He worked for a number of years in the private sector (banking) before joining the European Commission in 1997. Filip held several positions in the Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs and the Directorate General for Competition before moving to the Directorate General in charge of Education and Culture. Within this Directorate General he is the deputy head of the unit ‘Higher education and Erasmus’ and the Team Leader for the Erasmus Programme.

Luisa Ferreira joined the European Investment Bank (EIB) in 1999. She is currently an economic advisor at the Projects Department, with specific responsibilities for economic appraisal of projects and research work in the education and social sectors. Between 2003 and 2004, she was a senior education analyst at the Education Directorate of the OECD, where she was responsible for a project on the role of education and training policy in promoting equity and social cohesion. Prior to joining the European Investment Bank, she worked as a senior human resources economist at the World Bank (1992-1999), mainly involved in project and research work on education and social protection issues in Eastern Africa and Latin America. She also held teaching positions in Portugal at the Portuguese Catholic University and at the Universidade Nova de Lisbon and research positions in the USA. She graduated in economics from the Portuguese Catholic University (Portugal) and holds an MA and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA).

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

Christian Tauch studied history, international relations and literature in Germany and the US. From 1995 to 2005 he was head of the International Department of the German Rectors’ Conference HRK in Bonn. He co-authored several studies related to the Bologna Process ( in particular the EUA “Trends reports”) and is today working at the Unit for Higher Education Policy and the Erasmus Programme in the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission.

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, institutional human resources management, research performance assessment, researchers’ training, -career and -mobility, all contributing to the creation of 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: the Erasmus Programme, the modernisation agenda for universities and the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process). 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.

David Crosier joined Eurydice, the EU’s education information network, in September 2008. He is responsible for the network’s studies on higher education, and is currently working on a report, Focus on Higher Education in Europe 2010, that will be produced for the Bologna Ministerial Conference in March 2010, and will offer a comprehensive picture of national higher education system developments over the past decade. 

Before joining Eurydice, David worked for the European University Association where he was responsible for a variety of projects focusing on different aspects of implementation of the Bologna process. He managed EUA’s Trends reports, and was co-author of the Trends V publication in 2007.

Cornelia Racké coordinates the work of the Bologna Secretariat, which until 30 June 2010 is jointly provided by the Benelux countries, Austria and Hungary. As Luxembourg’s representative on the Bologna Secretariat (though German by nationality), she also assists the working group on “international openness” and the preparation of the 2010 ministerial conference.

In 2009, Cornelia Racké set up her own consultancy firm (Edvenco – Education Events & Consulting), specialising in higher education policy and the organisation of education events. She is also preparing a PhD thesis (on the Bologna Process as emerging international regime) at Maastricht University, where she worked as researcher before joining the Bologna Secretariat in 2007. Previously, Cornelia organised seminars and other events on topics related to European integration at the European Academy Berlin. She holds a BA in European Studies from Osnabrück University (Germany) and an MA in European Integration from Bradford University (UK).

Michael joined the EUA in 2006, where he was first in charge of Global Dialogue and internationalisation, to become in 2009 Head of the Higher Education Policy Unit. Prior to this, he has been working for more than a decade in higher education cooperation and development in the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Asia.

Irina Lungu is Policy Officer at the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). She is currently involved in the Hextlearn project (Higher Education exploring ICT use for Lifelong Learning), which aims to set up an international online community of higher education institutions willing to exchange good practice on the use of ICT for educational purposes. 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.