Experts

Günter Wageneder is head of Quality Management at the University of Salzburg, being responsible for the Universities Quality Management System as a whole, including QM in fields as various as study programs, teaching, research and administration, monitoring and reporting, evaluations, rankings, and much more. During the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17 he was also responsible for the development of a QMS for a joint master programme with 10 partner institutions  (posig.info). He also co-managed the accreditation of this programme following the “European Approach for the Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes” (as the second accreditation procedure of its kind in whole Europe). Since 2016 Günter Wageneder is appointed as one of Austria’s “National Experts for the European Higher Education Area” and as such he is a member of the Austrian Bologna Follow Up Group (BFUG). During the last years he visited several Higher Education Institutions in the Balkans. 

Oliver Vettori is Dean of Accreditation and Quality Management and Director of Program Management and Teaching and Learning Affairs at WU Vienna (Vienna University of Economics and Business). He holds a doctoral degree in Sociology/Organisation Theory from the University of Vienna and is a Research Associate at WU’s Institute for Organization Studies. Oliver has been working in higher education management and research for more than fifteen years, as a reviewer, trainer, researcher and expert in about 50 different countries on four different continents including work for EUA, ENQA, UNESCO IIEP, ASEAN-QA, EU-SHARE and various agencies and higher education institutions. In his research, he focuses on quality assurance and higher education development, on teaching and learning as well as on organisational cultures and change. He serves on the international Editorial Board of Quality in Higher Education and is currently coordinating the ENGAGE.EU European university teaching and learning agenda.

Queenie is Senior Expert of Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). She joined ACA in late 2010. Since 2018, she works half-time from ACA’s antenna office in Trier and is primarily responsible for research and consultancy services. Her main intellectual interest lies in university rankings, marketing, branding and strategic planning. Queenie also serves as a reviewer for the European Commission sometimes.  
Queenie holds an MA in Higher Education from INCHER-Kassel and an MPhil in Communication from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she also obtained her BA in Translation.  

Jakub Grodecki is currently serving as Vice President of the European Students’ Union. His primary focus within the organisation is the Quality of Higher Education, Learning&Teaching, digitalisation of higher education. He is also a member of the Advisory Council on Youth in the Council of Europe. The central part of his work is developing students’ point of view on the developments taking place within the European Higher Education Area and European Education Area through various initiatives such as the European Universities Initiative and Microcredentials.

Previously, he also worked as a Quality Assurance expert of the Polish Accreditation Committee (PKA) and the ESU QA Pool of Experts. He has an academic background in a STEM field, namely Mechanical Engineering (B.Eng) and Management and Production Engineering (MSc) done at the University of Science and Technology (AGH) in Kraków.

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Renata Šamo graduated in the English Language and Literature (Minor: Spanish) from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, then received her master’s and doctor’s degrees, both in Philology, from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. At present she is a Professor at the Faculty of Humanities in Pula, where she heads the newly-founded English Department, along with being the Vice-Dean for Research and International Cooperation. Before that she used to teach at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, as well as at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka. Her research interests include psycholinguistics, second language acquisition (SLA), educational linguistics, (critical) discourse analysis, and more recently geolinguistics, language landscape, and language philosophy. She has presented many papers at conferences, seminars and workshops in Croatia, around Europe and in the U.S.A. (e.g. University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Geneva, Georgetown University (Washington, DC), Harvard University) to be later released by a range of national and international publishers (e.g. Multilingual Matters, Peter Lang, Springer, Bulzoni Edittore, etc.). Her publications also include one research book (another one in press); in addition, she co-edited one research volume. Renata Šamo is a member of the editorial board of one national journal, as well as a member of the scientific council of one international journal. Besides her affiliation to different academic and professional associations in Croatia, she is a member of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA). Renata Šamo lives in Pula after moving from Zagreb in late 2019, but she passionately loves travelling across the world. Never stop challenging yourself is probably the best wording that can be used to describe Renata Šamo professionally and privately; that’s her real life credo!

Marina Diković is assistant professor of pedagogy at the Faculty of Educational Sciences Juraj Dobrila University of Pula. Her research interests include didactics (curriculum), intercultural pedagogy, human rights education, and citizenship education. She is head of the Pedagogical competences teaching program. She actively participates in domestic and international scientific conferences, and is the author and co-author of numerous papers in the wider field of pedagogy.

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Jan Beseda, PhD is a senior researcher in Centre for Higher Education Studies and the Head of National Centre for Distance Education. He is mainly focused on using ICT in education, higher education quality assurance  and competencies development. He is the main organizer of international conference DisCo about using ICT in education. He is a member of EURASHE WG Learning&Teaching and WG Microcredentials. He has participated in many international projects. He is a lecture at University of Jan Amos Komensky in Prague.

Lucie Rohlíková is dedicated to the preparation of future teachers in the field of technology use in education at the Department of Computer and Didactic Technology, Faculty of Education, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. At the same time, she works as the head of the Quality Divison of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, where she focuses on the development of the quality evaluation system, the education of university staff, and the concept of lifelong and distance education. She implements practically focused and research projects, and publishes both in the Czech Republic and abroad. She is an experienced author, and tutor of online courses. She has received several awards for innovative pedagogical activities, and for the elaboration of online courses and electronic educational materials (Awards of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports for outstanding educational activities at university level, 2019, The Best European Learning Materials Awards 2015 - Gold Award, EUNIS-CZ award 2010, National Centre for Distance Education Award 2004). Since 2015, she has organized the annual conference for teachers of all types of schools on the meaningful use of technology in education, Učitel IN. Since 2016, she has been the chairwoman of the Czech Association of Distance University Education (ČADUV), and represents the Czech Republic in the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU).

Anzor Beridze is an Assistant Professor of Kutaisi International University and a member of the Accreditation Council of National Center for Education Quality Enhancement. From 2008 to 2020 he was an Associate Professor of Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University. During this period, he held different administrative positions, including the Head of Quality Assurance Center of Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University. He has participated in many international projects. His research interests mainly focus on algebraic topology.

Dr. Irine Darchia is an Associate Professor in Classics at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) since 1996 and Higher Education Reform Expert (HERE) of Tempus/Erasmus+ National Office Georgia since 2009. 
Dr. Irine Darchia studied Georgian and Classical Philology at TSU (Georgia) and Modern Greek Language and Culture at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). She did her Internship at the Universities of Jena and Saarbrucken (Germany), defended her dissertations (equivalent to PhD and Habilitation) at TSU (Georgia). Dr. Irine Darchia teaches classics at TSU (Georgia), but as a visiting professor she has delivered courses and public lectures at the universities of Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Norway and Denmark. She has coordinated and participated in international projects on Classics and Higher Education Development under DAAD, Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Ministry of Development of Greece, SRNSF, Tempus, Erasmus+, OSGF, MCA Georgia, World Bank, etc. 
Since 2005 Dr. Irine Darchia has served as a Head of Quality Assurance Service and Vice-Rector of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Rector’s Adviser at National Defence Academy, TSU and University of Georgia, Vice-Rector of East European University, Head of Higher Education and Science Development Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia. She is an authorization and accreditation expert at NCEQE (Georgia), SKVC (Lithuania) and AIKA (Latvia). Dr. Irine Darchia is a member of International Advisory Board of National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (Ukraine).   

Irma Grdzelidze is a Head of Quality Assurance Service at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. Dr. Grdzelidze is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. She is the founder and the chair of Quality Assurance Thematic Working Group of Georgia. Dr. Grdzelidze is a member of Advisory Board for Georgian NQF. Since 2015, she has been active as a Higher Education Reform Expert (HERE) in the EU-funded SPHERE initiative. Recently, she has become a member of EUA-CDE Steering Committee. Also, she holds DAAD Bologna Peer Hub Support’s expert position.

Ketevan Darakhvelidze, MA: International Educational Development at Columbia University (NY, U.S.A.) and M.Phil: Higher Education Administration (a joint European Master - Erasmus Mundus Action 1, 2009-2011) at University of Oslo (Norway), University of Tampere (Finland), and University of Aveiro (Portugal).

She is leading development processes at Ilia State University as a Head of the Office of Development promoting academic cooperation in international educational and scientific projects and institutional relations with international organizations and science foundations. She has 11 years professional experience in leadership of higher education.

Vilmos Vass is habilitated Associate Professor of Education Science and a teacher of Hungarian language and literature, history and pedagogy. He has been teaching in schools and universities for 39 years. He is a board member of several national and international associations. Between 2004 and 2010 he was a member of the EU Key Competences Cluster. In 2003 and 2007, he was the head of the revision on the National Core Curriculum and the Implementation Board. He is member of the Editorial Board of 14 national and international journals. He now works at the Budapest Metropolitan University, Hungary. He is the author or co-author of nearly 200 Hungarian and English language publications. His research areas and recent publications are on learning-centred curriculum theory and creative knowledge transfer. 

College Professor, Associate Professor, Instructional Designer, Researcher in Educational Sciences, e-Learning expert, former Vice-Rector for Science, Research and International Relations, Blogger

Angela Bajzáth works at the Faculty of Primary and Preschool Education at the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest and the Digital Succes Ltd. She gives lectures on family sociology, children’s right and safeguarding.  Besides, she publishes studies, edits books, frequently gives presentations at conferences, offers facilitations in workshops and training courses in Hungary on the issue of student centred learning, use of learning outcomes, outcomes oriented development of qualifications. She does research for the intercultural education competencies and educational innovation. One of the current research projects is to develop a learning environment to train Culturally Competent Educative Professionals through a Practice-based methodology. She also runs trainings and skills development workshops for researchers, professors as well as academic and management leaders in higher education institutions. Her mother tongue is Hungarian. She is proficient in German and English as well.

Dr. László Horváth is an economist-andragogue and works as an assistant professor at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Education. He received his PhD in 2019. His research revolves around the leadership and management issues of educational institutions, especially focusing on learning organisational behaviour. He teaches in teacher education and teacher CPD, pedagogy and human resources counsellor programmes.

Language pedagogy and language educational technology specialist.
Head of ICT Research Center and university associate professor at the Department of German Language and Literature of the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary. She received her PhD in 2004 and her habilitation in 2019.
Her research and teaching areas are linked to language learning methodology and learning and teaching with digital technologies (EdTech), particularly in foreign language teaching and teacher training, but more recently in higher education as well.

Areas of work covers all education sector (K12, VET, HE, Adult learning) 
Systemic development of national Digital Competence Framework 
Planning development projects fo HE (smart university, healthy campus) 
Making policy analysis on the effect of digitalisation in education
Ex-ante analysis of introducing digital competence framework
Working out digital innovation strategy
Creating a digital competence framework based on the EU DigComp initiative
Creating monitoring system and composit indicators
Supporting international project implementation 
Supporting the developement and renewal of National Core Curriculum
Advising and proposing an implementation plan of the midle level curricula
Developing a digital maturity assesment tool of schools

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Dr. Ruaidhri Neavyn is currently employed as an advisor on Higher Education Policy with the Higher Education Authority and the Department of Education and Skills in Ireland. He contributes to the development of current and emerging policies and strategies relevant to the development of Higher Education in Ireland. Currently he is engaged in projects in the areas of skills and enterprise engagement, system governance & performance and internationalisation.Prior to this he served as president for over 11 years with two Institutes of Technology in Ireland, namely the Waterford Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Carlow. He has also served as an expert advisor for the OECD and EU and is currently a member of the Portuguese advisory council on higher education.

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Bárbara Gabriel holds a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering, with graduate studies on Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications, extensive experience on teaching/learning in Higher Education Institutions and expertise in the business sector. Currently, she works as a researcher in the field of innovation, entrepreneurial teaching and learning, engineering education, and nanoengineering applied to Manufacturing for Circular Economy and Innovative Technology for Intelligent Cities.

Since 2019, Bárbara Gabriel is Deputy-Director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Aveiro, being responsible for the strategy of Internationalization and Cooperation of the Department, particularly in the outreach of its educational and research offers. She is also the contact point and key link between the Department (and University) and the European Commission.

Since 2015, Bárbara Gabriel is the Coordinator of the Science and Engineering Education (SEE) Group in the University of Aveiro, conducting R&D related to methodologies for engineering teaching & learning. She carries active research on the profile (skills and competences) of higher education teachers for Society’s needs and demands, namely regarding innovation, competitiveness and most important, citizenship. Within this field, she was responsible of the creation and implementation of the Excellence in Engineering Education initiative (E3@UA) at the University of Aveiro.

Bárbara Gabriel is the coordinator of the European Erasmus+ project THEI2.0 (Towards HEInnovate 2.0: From assessment to action), and the TANDEM+ Project (Transformation, Acceleration, Networking, Development, Entrepreneurial education and Mentoring+), within the HEI Initiative promoted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). She was also a member of the panel of experts of the European project Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Education Programmes in Higher Education Institutions and Centres (EEEPHEIC). 

Bárbara Gabriel is an expert and facilitator of HEInnovate, an initiative of the European Commission's DG Education and Culture in partnership with the OECD. 

Jasmina Nikolić is Agile Humans CEO and Co-founder. Agile Organisational Developer, Trainer and Coach since 2010. Specialized in agile organisational culture, agile education, and business and development integration. Certified Scrum Professional, Certified Scrum Product Owner, Certified Scrum Master. Kanban Method Coach. Barrett Certified Consultant for Leadership and Culture Value Assessment) in Barrett Values Centre. PhD Candidate in National Culture Models. Higher Education Reform Expert. 
Teaches Agile Culture at the University La Salle, Barcelona.

Mirko Savić is a full professor at the University of Novi Sad, and visiting professor at Tor Vergata University in Rome. He is teaching statistics and econometrics and his fields of interest are of statistics, labour market and higher education. Former member of Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Serbia, HERE team Serbia, and current member of Statistical Council of Republic of Serbia. He participated in many EU projects: ADA (Advanced Data Analytics in Business) (coordinator), DIARKAZ (Dual Education for Industrial Automatization and Robotics in Kazakhstan) (coordinator), DUALSCI (Strengthening capacities for the implementation of dual education in BH higher education), FINHED (Towards Sustainable and Equitable Financing of Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia), SIPUS (Strengthening of Internationalisation Policies at Universities in Serbia), PT&SCHE (Introduction of part-time and short cycle studies in Serbia), DUALEDU (Implementation of Dual Education in Higher Education of Serbia), etc.