Tommaso Agasisti is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano School of Management, where he teaches Business Economics as well as Public Management. His research interests deal with the performance evaluation and innovation of public organizations, with a special attention to schools, universities and local governments. Specifically, he is an expert in efficiency analyses conducted with parametric and non-parametric methods.

With his research group, he also works on policy evaluation, by means of econometric, statistical and machine learning methods applied to a variety of public management issues, such as the prediction of schools and students at-risk, the effectiveness of financial education programs, the effect of public expenditure on economic growth, the impact of managerial practices on organizations’ performance. He authored more than 140 publications, which appeared in international, peer-reviewed academic journals and international books.

Moreover, he disseminated his research through books and newspapers’ articles for the Italian audience. He served as a member of the Politecnico di Milano Governing Board between 2019 and 2024. He is part of the Executive Committee of the PoliMI GSOM – Graduate School of Management since 2014; now, he is Associated Dean for Institutions & Public Administrations. Between 2010 and 2019, he sat in the Evaluation Committee of various public and private Italian universities.

He actively collaborates with policy makers and serves with consultancy and institutional roles in public sector institutions, such as the European Commission, the Italian Ministry of Education, and INVALSI (the Italian Evaluation Committee for the Educational System).

Teresa Carvalho is a Full Professor at the Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro, and a senior researcher at CIPES (Center for Research in Higher Education Policies), where she is also a board member. She directs the PhD program in Public Policies and serves as Vice Director of the Master’s in Administration and Public Policies.

She was part of the ESA (European Sociological Association) Executive Committee (2016–2021) and chaired the ESA Research Network on Professions (RN19). She has been a board member of ISA’s Research Committee on Professional Groups (RC52) and serves on the Advisory Boards of RN19 and the Portuguese Sociological Association (APS). She is also a founding member of WHEM (Women in Higher Education Management).

Teresa has led and participated in multiple national and international research projects funded by the EU (H2020), FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), and other European institutions. Her research focuses on higher education policies, academic professions, and gender dynamics. She has published extensively and serves on editorial boards of journals such as Minerva, Professions and Professionalism, TEAM-Tertiary Education and Management, and Higher Education Governance and Policy.

Hamish COATES is an Honorary Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University (ANU), a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, and Executive Dean at Holmes Institute Australia. He was a Tenured Professor at Tsinghua University’s Institute of Education (IOE) and Director of the Higher Education Division. He was Professor of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE). He was Program Director at the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Leadership and Management (LHMI), and Founding Director of Higher Education Research at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). He held prior roles at Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) and the University of Melbourne’s Assessment Research Centre (ARC), and honorary/visiting appointments and fellowships at the University of Mauritius, Southwest Jiaotong University, University of Melbourne, Danube University Krems, University of Queensland, University of Michigan, and the International Institute for Educational Planning.

Hamish contributes to the field of higher education through teaching, leadership, research, innovation, and advising. Spanning 25 years he has held executive appointments at prestigious universities, led over 150 influential projects, worked across 65 countries, authored/edited 40 books/monographs and 200 academic papers and 130 reports, created and led partnerships and consortia, edited and advised top journals, procured millions in funding, led major funding and regulatory initiatives, convened hundreds of conferences/workshops, advised top leaders, delivered 400 keynotes and invited presentations, engineered education platforms and policy solutions, and generated teaching/research revenue streams. I am a highly cited researcher and sought globally as a speaker with an h-index of 52 and over 14,000 citations.

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Bojana Ćulum Ilić is a Full Professor at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her research focuses on engaged university practices, teaching and learning, and youth civic education. She serves as Director of the University of Rijeka Foundation.

She is a member of The Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship, the European Association of Service Learning in Higher Education, and the Central and Eastern European Network for Service-learning.

Bojana has received numerous accolades for her higher education engagement, including the Croatian National Award “Ivan Filipović”, the City of Rijeka Award, and faculty awards for scientific contribution and science popularization. She is also a Fulbright alumna.

Professor Isak Frumin is a distinguished fellow of the International Academy of Education and currently serves as the Head of the Observatory of Higher Education Innovations at Constructor University Bremen (formerly Jacobs University Bremen, Germany). He is also a part-time Professor in the Department of Higher Education Research at the University of Continuing Education Krems in Austria.

From 2011 to 2022, Professor Frumin held the position of Vice-Rector and Head of the Institute of Education at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics,” one of Europe’s largest education research centers. Prior to this, he was a Lead Education Specialist at the World Bank from 2000 to 2011, focusing on educational initiatives in ex-socialist countries, India, and Nepal.

In 2020, influenced by the challenges posed by the pandemic, he initiated the first international observatory of higher education transformations, bringing together higher education researchers from leading global centers. He has led several large-scale research projects in comparative higher education, resulting in publications on topics such as higher education in post-Soviet countries, higher education in federal systems, and accelerated universities. Currently, he is leading a research program on the adoption of artificial intelligence in higher education.

Futao Huang is a Professor of higher education at the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University, Japan. With an extensive publication record, he has contributed significantly to the fields of the internationalization of higher education, the academic profession, university curriculum design, and comparative studies of higher education in East Asia. His work as an editor and editorial board member for various international journals showcases his dedication to advancing higher education policy and management.

His ongoing research addresses the complexities of higher education’s role in a knowledge-based society, the experiences of international faculty in Asia, and the global south’s internationalization strategies. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Trustees at Richmond The American International University in London, indicating his commitment to shaping global educational landscapes.

His career reflects a deep engagement with the challenges and transformations in higher education, contributing thoughtfully to policy and practice in an increasingly interconnected world.

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Address: H-1075 Budapest, Kazinczy u. 23-27.
Phone: +36202261085
Email: kalman.orsolya@ppk.elte.hu
ORCID: 0000-0002-4392-5324

Orsolya Kálmán is an associate professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, the head of the Higher Education and Innovation Research Group and the Teaching and Learning Unit in Higher Education. She has been involved in educational science BA and MA and teacher education since 2004 and has taught in the doctoral programme since 2016. She is the director of the Learning and Teaching specialization in the Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE) Erasmus Mundus Programme.

Her research area is connected to higher education pedagogy and teacher education. Her main research interests include university teachers’ professional development and learning, the role of educational developers and educational development, innovation competence, and pedagogy. She has been working as an educational developer and consultant at the Semmelweis Medical University and in the MBA programme of Corvinus University, Budapest.

Higher Education and Innovation Research Group:
The Higher Education and Innovation Research Group (HEIR) focuses on higher education research with a special focus on learning and teaching, teacher professional development, organisational management, and innovation processes. The research group supports the Doctoral Programme in Teacher Education and Research in Higher Education (EDiTE), and the Erasmus Mundus programme Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE). These programs apply innovative learning and teaching methods based on student-centeredness and support problem- and project-based learning. HEIR is part of the Institute of Education at Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Education and Psychology, established in September 2015 from the former Centre for Higher Education Management (CHEM).

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Dr. Xin Li is currently a specially appointed assistant professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration (Higher Education) from Seoul National University in South Korea, an M.A. in Comparative Education from Beijing Normal University in China, and a B.A. in Korean Language and Literature from Peking University in China.

Her professional experience includes a graduate internship at the Asian Development Bank, where she conducted research on institutional frameworks for university-industry linkages in South Asia. She also worked as a part-time researcher at the Chinese Embassy to the Republic of Korea (Office of Education Affairs), analyzing educational development, reforms, and policies in South Korea.

Dr. Li’s research focuses on higher education governance, the third mission, and the evolving academic profession. She is currently the principal investigator of a research project titled “Academics’ Societal Engagement in Knowledge-Based East Asian Societies: A Comparative Study of Japan, China, and South Korea,” funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from 2024 to 2028.

In addition, Dr. Li serves as an assistant editor for the Higher Education Forum, a peer-reviewed English-language journal indexed by Scopus.

Dr. Xiaomin Li is a lecturer at the Institute of International and Comparative Education of Beijing Normal University. She holds a PhD in Comparative Education and International Development from the Institute of Education, University College London. Her doctoral thesis studies the changing role of the OECD in global educational governance, focusing on how the OECD extends its influence into low- and middle-income countries via the PISA for Development project.

She has published several articles in the Journal Comparative Education, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, and Critical Studies in Education. One of her co-authored articles received a rating of 4 stars by the Hong Kong University Grants Committee’s Research Assessment Exercise in 2023.

She is currently leading two research projects, one of which focuses on the interactions between nation-states and international organizations and is supported by China’s Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities.

Dr. Baocun Liu is a professor of comparative education and the Director of the Institute of International and Comparative Education (IICE) of Beijing Normal University, China. He is currently serving as the President of China’s Comparative Education Society (CCES).

With specialization and research interests in comparative education, higher education, and education policy and management, Professor Liu has been involved in a wide range of national and international research and consultancy projects. He has published more than 400 journal articles and 30 books.

He has received many honours and awards for his research, teaching, and service in the field of education, including the Ministry of Education Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars Programme.

Attila Pausits is a Full Professor of Higher Education Research and Development and Head of the Department for Higher Education Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. He is the academic director of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Programme “Research and Innovation in Higher Education, MSc”, spokesman of the Austrian Higher Education Researchers Network, and editor-in-chief of the Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung (Journal for Higher Education Development).

Dr. Pausits has led multiple European and national projects on higher education research and development and has contributed to numerous publications, studies, and policy reports. He has collaborated with the European Commission, OECD, UNESCO, quality assurance agencies, and ministries, supporting higher education development at macro, meso, and micro levels.

His research interests include higher education governance, organizational and career development, the third mission of universities, and academic continuing education within lifelong learning.

Rómulo Pinheiro is Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Agder (UiA), Norway, where he is Deputy Head of Department. He is a member of the research group on Public Governance and Leadership (GOLEP) and a track co-coordinator at the Center for Digital Transformation (CeDiT), based at UiA. Rómulo’s research interests are located at the intersection of public policy and administration, organisational theory, economic geography, innovation and higher education studies.

His work has been published (150+ publications) in major scientific journals like Public Administration Review, Science and Public Policy, Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, etc. Rómulo has co-edited numerous books by Springer, Routledge, Palgrave, Sense, Emerald, etc. He is currently involved with several comparative projects on topics like Resilience, Digital Transformation, Green Transitions and Hybridity. He is a member of the Editorial Review Board of Higher Education (Springer) and the Editorial Board of European Journal of Higher Education (Taylor & Francis).

Zoltán Rónay (1976) is a lawyer with a Ph.D. in law and political sciences and a habilitation in Educational Sciences. Between 2006 and 2015, he served as secretary-general of Eötvös Loránd University. Today, he is an associate professor at the same university’s Faculty of Education and Psychology in the Institution of Education, where he served as a vice dean for education (2019-2025) and is still the head of the faculty quality management. As a university lecturer, he regularly has many general and education law thematic courses in Pedagogy, Educational Science, Management, and Human Resources.

He is a supervisor in the Education Doctoral Programme. Apart from these regular courses, he has founded several elective courses. He is the academic director of the Erasmus Mundus Programme Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE) joint master program with the University of Krems. His research interests cover the entire field of education law, especially higher education and public education, with special emphasis on institutional autonomy and academic freedom.

He served as an expert on academic freedom for the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS), Secretariat of the European Parliament Scientific Foresight Unit, Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). Today, he is one of the nine working group expert members of the Council of Europe, Democratic Mission of Higher Education (2024 -2027) – Expert team member for Academic Freedom in Action.

Nena Rončević, PhD, is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, where she teaches courses in the methodology of social research and education for sustainability—her main area of research interest.

She completed her undergraduate studies at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, and earned her Master’s degree (2009) and Doctoral degree (2011) at the Department of Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka.

She has served as Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs and as Head of the Department of Education at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka. She was the National Program Manager for the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC, Cycle 2, OECD) in Croatia.

She was also the head of the APIKS Croatia project and the Croatian team leader for ERASMUS+. She is a member of the Croatian Sociological Association and the National Association for the Development of Higher Education, “Universitas.”

Maria João Rosa holds a degree in Chemical Engineering (1996), by the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra, and a PhD on Industrial Engineering (2003), by the University of Aveiro. She is as an Associate Professor at the Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism Department of the University of Aveiro and a senior researcher at CIPES (Centre for research in Higher Education Policies). She also collaborates with the GOVCOPP (Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies).

Her main research topics lie in the area of quality management, with a special focus on the higher education sector. She has been involved in different research projects and has published a number of papers in indexed international journals. She is co-editor, among others, of the books Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Trends in Regulation, Translation and Transformation (2007), Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Contemporary Debates (2014) and Research Handbook on Academic Careers and Managing Academics (2022).

She is the Secretary General of CHER – Consortium for Higher Education Researchers; a member of EAIR – The European Higher Education Society; and an associate member of the APQ (The Portuguese Association for Quality).

Amy Stich is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education. She uses sociological perspectives and qualitative methodologies to study the mechanisms that stratify and reproduce inequality in higher education.

Her research has been supported by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation. She is the author of more than 40 publications, including Access to Inequality: Reconsidering Class, Knowledge, and Capital in Higher Education.

Stich serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of the Sociology of Education, The Journal of Higher Education, and The Review of Higher Education. She received her Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo.

Emnet Tadesse Woldegiorgis is a Professor and Director at the Ali Mazrui Center for Higher Education Studies (AMCHES), University of Johannesburg. He holds a PhD from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, where he also worked as a researcher between 2015 and 2019. Emnet holds a joint Master’s Degree in Higher Education Studies from Oslo University (Norway), Tampere University (Finland), and Aveiro University (Portugal).

He is NRF-rated researcher with a portfolio of over 30 peer-reviewed academic publications, primarily focusing on higher education research. Emnet has received advanced-level research training in higher education from the Centre for Institutional Cooperation (ICIS) at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, as well as specialised training in Leadership and Management of Higher Education Institutions from Maastricht School of Management.

Emnet is currently the Chair of the World Council for Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) Peace Education task force and the advisor board member of the Finnish Higher Education Partnership Programmer (HEP) representing the African continent. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Emnet served in various roles, including Head of the Quality Assurance Office and Department Heads of various academic entities.

Dr. Sina Westa is a Senior Scientist at the Department for Higher Education Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. She is a member of the Global Observatory for Higher Education Research (GOHEC) and part of the GOHEC office. Furthermore, she is the Academic Director of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE).

She has received her PhD as a Marie-Curie fellow within the EU funded Initial Training Networks Network “Universities in the Knowledge Economy (UNIKE)”. Her research interests include Higher Education Governance, Academic Values the Internationalisation of Higher Education.

Karen Webber is Professor Emeritus in the McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia. She holds her Ph.D. from The University of Maryland College Park. Prior to joining the MIHE faculty on a full-time basis, she served as Director of Institutional Research and Interim Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness at the University of Georgia. Webber came to UGA in 2003, following a 15-year tenure in the Office of Institutional Research & Planning at the University of Delaware.

Prof. Webber has published research on a number of issues related to institutional effectiveness in higher education including faculty roles and work productivity, graduate education, gender equity in higher education, undergraduate research, and capacity building in institutional research.

She served as President and Board Chair for the Association of Institutional Research (AIR) and was the recipient of the 2018 Sidney Suslow Scholar award, the highest honor the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) bestows on an individual. She collaborates with colleagues around the world on IR, decision support, and academic planning in higher education. She has co-led two modules in the MARIHE program related to Institutional Research and Strategic Planning and occasionally travels to assist with improvements in higher education, with recent stops in Austria, South Africa, Croatia, and the UK.