Guus de Bruijn started his career as a lawyer specialised in EU law in the Netherlands. He quickly moved to Brussels afterwards and became a specialist in international railway affairs. Four years later, he joined the Secretariat of the Benelux Union where he currently helps the three countries work better together in transportation issues. His portfolio was extended last year with diploma recognition and education-related activities following the entry into force of the Open Multilateral Treaty on the Automatic Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications.

Naim Gashi has been the Director General of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA) since 2020. He has developed an extensive academic background in management and finance, focusing on strategic approaches for public institutions in the field of higher education. Under his leadership, the KAA has made significant strides in accrediting academic programs and institutions of higher education, even during challenging times like the pandemic. Under his leadership, the KAA was successfully registered in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), marking a major achievement for the higher education system in Kosovo. He serves as the Chair of the Kosovo State Council for Recruitment in High Leadership Positions. Gashi has worked as assistant professor of macroeconomics in several institutions of higher education in Kosovo, has been a member of the Board of Public Broadcasting (RTK) in Kosovo and Chairman of the Audit Committee, and has worked on dozens of local and international projects.

Eglantina Gishti is an associate professor at the University of Tirana, specializing in Natural Language Processing, computational linguistics, and language data analysis. She has coordinated numerous national and international projects and currently serves as the national coordinator (UT) for the UNINOVIS Alliance. This initiative aspires to establish itself as a leading European University in Applied Data Science, promoting excellence, inclusion, sustainability, and innovation."

Antoaneta Irikova is Policy Officer in he International cooperation unit of the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC), in the European Commission.

Maria Kelo is Director of Institutional Development at European University Association (EUA). The unit’s work focuses on recognition, quality assurance, rankings, and learning and teaching, including the European Degree. She is a member of the Swiss Accreditation Council, vice-president of the European Quality Assurance Register, and co-represents EUA in the Bologna Process.

Before joining EUA in 2022, Maria was the Director of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, and previously worked in different European organisations in higher education

Nadia Manzoni is currently a PhD candidate in Public Policy at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna and a fellow of the Yehuda Elkana Centre for Teaching, Learning and Higher Education Research at CEU. She researches the dynamics of European policymaking in the area of higher education on the case of the European Universities Initiative.  She entered academia having worked for nearly 10 years as an education analyst and policy officer and, most recently, as a team leader for the Erasmus+ programme in higher education in the European Commission's Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. Her educational background is in Education studies and German language (University of Cambridge) and European studies (University of Vienna). She recently participated in over 20 study programme and institutional evaluations as a student expert in accreditation procedures of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency.

Einar Meier is Head of Recognition of Foreign Higher Education at the Norwegian Directorate of Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), which is also the ENIC-NARIC for Norway. Einar was previously acting head of interview-based recognition.
 

Einar has more than 20 years of experience in managing international cooperation in higher education, serving as institutional Erasmus coordinator, senior adviser for international relations to the rector and coordinator of the Circle U. European University alliance at the University of Oslo. He holds a cand.philol. degree in English from the University of Oslo

Benjamin Muhamedbegović is an Assistant Director for Quality Assurance in the Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance Bosnia and Herzegovina (HEA BiH) with 19 years of experience in the higher education reforms in B&H

He is a member of Executive board of CEENQA (Central and Eastern European Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education).

Benjamin is an associate professor at the University of Tuzla,  and contractually engaged at the Faculty of Technology on the subject Food packaging. 

Benjamin is the author of book of cartoons “Bologna in B&H – where it got stock?!” :)

Dr. Aida Myrto is the General Director of the Albanian National Center for Educational Services, leading the State Matura, diploma recognition, and Albania’s participation in international assessments. With previous experience as Senior Expert in the BFUG Secretariat, she has contributed to advancing recognition and quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area. She has also been teaching Spanish as a foreign language for over a decade at the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Tirana.

Snježana Prijić Samaržija, Ph.D., is a professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka. She has recently completed her second term as the Rector of the University of Rijeka. Before her two mandates as rector, she spent eight years serving as the Vice-Rector for Students and Studies. Throughout sixteen years of active participation in university management, she has taken on the role of an expert in various national and international committees and advisory boards focused on university policies and practices.

She is the former President and current Secretary of External Affairs at of the Rectors Forum of Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans. She was the President of YERUN (Young European Research University Network) and the Alpe-Adriatic Rectors Conference as well as a member of the Strategy Board of the European Alliance YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe). She is a member of the Steering Committee for Education (and Steering Committee Bureau) and the member of the Subgroup for Higer Education Policies at the Council of Europe. In these roles, she has worked on fostering international partnerships and innovative research initiatives. She has founded the Centre for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe, which she also directs. She is the founder and first director of the University of Rijeka Foundation, and she is still in philanthropic activities through the position of President of the Board of directors of the Lürssen Foundation. The main areas of her scientific interest are social philosophy, political epistemology, and epistemology of democracy.

Angeliki Psychogyiou is Policy and Project Coordinator at the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), where she leads initiatives on digitalisation, sustainability, and international cooperation in higher education. She coordinates ACA’s Thematic Peer Group on New Mobility Formats, advancing discussions on digitally enhanced and sustainable mobility models, and currently oversees ACA’s participation in the European Digital Education Hub, where she has led the working group on sustainability in digital education.

Angeliki is also the project coordinator of HIBLend, an Erasmus+ project enhancing institutional capacity to implement high-quality blended mobility. With extensive experience in the design and evaluation of EU-funded education initiatives, she regularly supports National Agencies in reviewing Erasmus+ proposals, including those related to external action instruments.

Before joining ACA, she worked in institutional cooperation at the University of Paris 8, managing Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility (ICM) partnerships with institutions in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western Balkans. She later joined the European Vocational Training Association (EVTA), overseeing a portfolio of EU-funded skills and employability projects.

Aleksandar Šušnjar is the Director of the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) since 2024. His role in EQAR includes Secretariat management, organisational representation, supporting the work of the EQAR Register Committee and implementing EQAR’s strategic and operational plans.

Before joining EQAR, Aleksandar was employed at the University of Rijeka (Croatia) where he was the Institutional Coordinator for the university’s involvement in the YUFE Alliance. His other professional experience includes contribution to European projects, policy-making bodies and expert groups dealing with inter-institutional cooperation, quality of higher education, social dimension, student engagement, and qualification frameworks. Between 2021 and 2024, he was a member of the EQAR Register Committee.

Gunnar Vaht has served as Head of the Estonian ENIC/NARIC since 1997. He was responsible for establishing the system for academic recognition in Estonia and has contributed to the reform of the Estonian higher education system within the framework of the Bologna process. At the international level, he served as President of the ENIC Network from 2003 to 2005 and as President of the Lisbon Recognition Convention Committee from 2013 to 2019. He is currently a member of the NARIC Advisory Board. From 2016 to 2018 he was a member of the Drafting Committee of the UNESCO Global Recognition Convention and currently is a member of the Estonian delegation to the Bureau of the Convention. Among other international working groups, he is a member of Council of Europe ad hoc Working Group on automatic recognition of higher education qualifications.

 Prof. Mira Vukcevic  (Ph.D in technical sciences/material science) has a long experience in higher education (37 years). Actually,  she occupies the position of full professor at the Faculty of Metallurgy and Chemical technology, University of Montenegro. During her academic career she has also  occupied  the position of the Vice dean, Dean   and Vice rector for research and international cooperation. She was also the president of the National council for the scientific-research activities and  member of National  Council for qualifications, coordinated the national groups of experts in  drafting the first National strategy for scientific research activities in Montenegro, LLL strategy at University of Montenegro, Law on Montenegrin qualification network,  Author of set of standards and guidelines for accreditation in accordance with ESG under the supervision of World bank education funds. She had also an 8-years long evaluation experience in Region of knowledge, REGPOTS CSA under   FP7. She has been the coordinator of more than 20 TEMPUS projects at the University of Montenegro dealing with capacity building of UoM as well as other HEIs in Montenegro. She is also the president of national HERE team in Montenegro.

Mr. Erjon Xhako is a higher education professional with expertise in quality assurance, accreditation processes, and educational program development. He has contributed to the evaluation and improvement of study programs in Albania, with a particular focus on aligning academic standards with European and international frameworks. Erjon has experience in preparing institutional reports, coordinating with accreditation bodies, and supporting policy development in the field of education.