Leadership and Governance in Higher Education

Sjur Bergan is Head of the Council of Europe’s Department of Higher Education and History Teaching and former Secretary to its Steering Committee on Higher Education and Research (CDESR). He represents the Council of Europe on the Bologna Follow-Up Group and Board and chairs its working group on qualifications frameworks. Sjur Bergan is series editor of the Council of Europe Higher Education Series and a frequent contributor to international conferences and publications on higher education policies. He is the author of Qualifications: Introduction to a Concept (2007). His edited volumes include Speaking across Borders; the Role of Higher Education in Furthering Intercultural Dialogue (with Hilligje van’t Land, 2010), Higher Education for Modern Societies: Competences and Values (with Radu Damian, 2010), Public Responsibility for Higher Education and Research (with Luc Weber, 2005), The University as Res Publica (2004), and The Heritage of European Universities (with Nuria Sanz, 2002).

Eva Egron-Polak studied Political Science, French Literature, and International Political Economy. For almost 20 years she served in various senior positions at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). Her last position at AUCC was as Vice- President, International. She joined the International Association of Universities as Secretary-General in January 2002. As the head of this international non-governmental organization based at UNESCO in Paris, Eva Egron-Polak is engaged with many key issues in the higher education policy debate at the international level and more generally, with the role of higher education institutions in society.

Jürgen Kohler is Professor of private law and civil procedure at Greifswald University, Germany. He was rector of Greifswald University for six years and has participated in various European and national activities and projects related to higher education reform. These include, inter alia: representative of the German education institutions in the Committee on Higher Education and Research (CD-ESR) of the Council of Europe and member of its Bureau; member of the steering committee of the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) of the EUA; chair of the German Accreditation Council (Akkreditierungsrat); chair of the EUA project Quality Culture I – Implementing Bologna Reforms and of the EUA project European Masters’ New Evaluation Methodology; chair of the Council of Europe project on higher education governance.

Lewis Purser is director for academic affairs at the Irish Universities Association. From 1998 – 2005 he was programme manager at the EUA. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies at the University of Geneva, he worked from 1989 – 1998 with various higher education institutions in Hungary, Romania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and with several United Nations agencies in educational, health and social fields.

Athanassia Spyropoulou, coordinator of the Handbook, is a research fellow and PhD student in Higher Education Policy at the University of the Peloponnese, where she also teaches English for Academic Purposes. She has worked at the Greek Ministry of Education, first in the Directorate of European Union (1998-2000) and then in the Secretariat for Higher Education (2000-2004). She played an important role in the higher education activities of the Greek Presidency of the EU and in the preparation of the Bergen Bologna Ministerial Conference. Athanassia Spyropoulou has been an expert in many European Union, Council of Europe, EUA and other projects. She is an elected member of the Senate (2005-) of the University of the Peloponnese.