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.

Silke Preymann is a project manager of the Erasmus+ funded projects EnhanceIDM! (Enhanced Programme Leadership for Inclusion and Diversity Management in Higher Education) and ENTRANTS (Enhancing the transition of non-traditional students). She is working as a researcher in the Department for Higher Education Research and Development at FH Upper Austria with a focus on change and change management at universities (e.g. the implementation of the social dimension/the introduction of measures in the field of diversity management and inclusion).

Horia Onița is Vice President of the European Students’ Union, a role in which he coordinates the Quality of Higher Education cluster, including topics such as Quality Assurance, student-centred learning, digitalisation, recognition and micro-credentials. Apart from the Quality cluster, Horia represents ESU as a co-chair of the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) Working
Group on Social Dimension represents ESU towards the Council of Europe and follows other policy areas such as EU developments oh National Recovery and Resilience Plans and the European Semester. Horia has been involved in the student movement for over eight years, serving as president of the National Alliance of Student Organisations in Romania, representing ANOSR in the national QA Agency board and coordinating portfolios such as Bologna Process implementation in Romania. Horia has graduated in Law from the University of Bucharest. 

"Based on my knowledge of internationalisation and the expertise gained within ACA, I will be able to lead the work on the further elaboration of the PROFFORMANCE tool when it comes to internationalisation and I could possibly support the newly introduced digitalisation pillar, particularly regarding topics lying at the intersection of internationalisation and digitalisation such as virtual experience for internationalisation at home or blended mobility. I can also support activities related to the development of training courses on internationalisation for teachers and I am eager and fully capable to promote the PROFFORMANCE tool on various occasions."

"Being a part of the previous PROFFORMANCE team, I feel competent and motivated to improve the tool we have already created and, thus, to additionally upgrade my knowledge and experience in this area. Besides, I would really like to participate in promoting our previous achievements across organisations and countries, regardless of the type and duration, since no tool is valid enough if not used and if not understood properly."

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 with 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.

Daliborka Luketic is an associate professor at University, with scientific and teaching experience in Pedagogy (education science). Lots of rich experience in international projects and teacher training systems. 

Jan Beseda, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Centre for Higher Education Studies and holds the position of Head of the National Centre for Distance Education. Additionally, Jan serves as the Director of the Czech Association of Professional Tertiary Education. His primary areas of expertise include leveraging ICT in education, ensuring quality in higher education, and fostering competency development. Jan is also renowned for his role as the primary organizer of the international DisCo conference, focusing on the integration of ICT in education. Furthermore, he actively participates in several influential working groups, such as EURASHE Quality Assurance Community of Practice, and has been involved in numerous international projects. Jan is also a lecturer at the Higher Education Institution (HEI) Ambis in Prague.

Michal Černý is an assistant professor and senior researcher focusing on EduTech. He has a PhD in social education with experience in international education.

Linda Pospisilova is a PhD candidate in ICT in Education at the University of West Bohemia and an ESP and EAP lecturer at the University of Pardubice at all three levels of tertiary education. I have a long history of eLearning and I am a Mahara ePortfolio evangelist and researcher. I also have some experience with internationalization projects, especially Videoconferencing and Intensive Short Mobility Stay organization for students, and in the micro-credentials – Open Source Badges in LMS Moodle.  I research autonomy, self-directed learning and ePorfolio use. I am an author of several awarded blended learning courses designed in LMS Moodle and Mahara ePortfolio.

Anca Greere holds a PhD in Linguistics/Translation Studies and is habilitated in the Romanian context. She has been an active academic for over 20 years and hold a full professorship coupled with the role of director of a master's programme affiliated with a European Commission network. She ha led/contributed to a variety of national and international projects with a view to developing the European Higher Education Area and have designed and delivered training for multiple quality assurance agencies, universities and the European Commission. 

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).   

Lali Giorgidze has worked in external QA of higher education that covers QA of internationalisation of higher education and QA of online/blended T&L. She is one of the members of the BFUG working group on Teaching and Learning (representing Georgia) which works on the development of specific recommendations for policymakers for translating into practice Rome Ministerial recommendations on T&L. As part of her current studies in Sweden, she focuses on sustainability and particularly on how HEIs contribute to the achievement of SDGs 2030. 

Frank Linde has many years of experience in developing and delivering workshops for teaching personnel in HE. This includes didactics in general and especially workshops on D&I. Insofar he might supports this valuable project in the area of inclusion and partly also digitization.

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. 

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

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.

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. 

Jelena Parojčić is an experienced HE professor, proactive lifelong learner believing that academic staff and students need empowerment for the challenges of uncertain times, and a bookworm.

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. 

Dragica Trivic is engaged in the further development of assessment and self-assessment tools as well as training for teachers.

Branka Milenkovic's experience and expertise are predominantly in the area of internationalization and digitalization, with additional interest in the areas of inclusion and sustainability. Over the years of her professional teaching and research development, she has been involved in the fields of applied linguistics, ELT and Academic writing. Besides teaching and researching in these study fields she has been involved in various international projects pertaining to the development of internationalization and Academic writing and these areas have inspired her teaching practice, institutional involvement and research interests. She is mostly stimulated by engaging in contemporary teaching practice, relevant and innovative methods of teaching and learning, contributing to institutional development and establishing and maintaining international cooperation for mutual support and growth in the field. Therefore, her incentive in being a part of this project is in sharing experience and knowledge and supporting institutional development to align with the European standards of higher education.

Anca Prisacariu holds a PhD in Educational Sciences from the University of Bucharest and was a Research Fellow within the Institute of Behavioural Sciences at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her educational background is in the quality assurance of higher education, focusing on enhancement-led systems and processes. Apart from her academic profile, Anca has broad working experience with international organizations for higher education and acts as an expert for multiple national quality assurance agencies across Europe and outside of it, where she has been part of more than 50 review panels at study program, institutional, and quality assurance agency levels.

Anca currently serves as the Quality Assurance Director of the American Institute of Applied Sciences in Switzerland where her role covers, among others, the implementation of the quality assurance strategy, the coordination of the areas of governance and policy management, monitoring the implementation of the strategic plan, and ensuring institutional compliance in external accountability processes.