Meet the speakers and contributors

Prof. PhDr. Lenka A. Rovná, CSc. is a Jean Monnet Chair Ad Personam and three times the bearer of Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in European Studies at Charles University (the first in Central/Eastern Europe). She founded European Studies in the Czech Republic at the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University (1995 -). Lenka Rovná’s teaching and research concentrates on European and British Politics. Lenka Rovná was also a member at the Convention for the Future of Europe in 2002-2003 representing the Czech Government. She served as a Vice Rector of Charles University in Prague for European Affairs (2014 – 2022). Lenka Rovná is a member of the Executive Board of Coimbra Group (2016 -) and a member of the Management Committee of the European University Alliance 4EU+ from its foundation in 2018, currently she is a member of Rector’s Board and her representative in 4EU+. She was awarded the title “Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite.” in 2004 and “Officier de l’Ordre National du Merite” in 2016.

Laura, the Project Officer for ED-AFFICHE, is a dedicated representative for Una Europa and KU Leuven in the consortium. She previously contributed to a prominent network of over 50 universities from the capitals of Europe, UNICA. Laura's professional journey reflects her passion for higher education policies. She is deeply committed to shaping the strategies of European University Alliances, striving to enhance the landscape of academia. As she continues to contribute her expertise, Laura envisions a future where she remains actively engaged in the strategic development of European University Alliances, furthering her commitment to shaping the future of higher education. 

Gloria Quarantani is a member of the Erasmus Student Network’s Committee for Education. Originally from Italy and now residing in Rotterdam, Gloria brings over 5 years of professional experience in International Higher Education. As a former international student, her passion for helping fellow international students find the perfect place to live in her involvement with the Erasmus Student Network, the leading student organization supporting yearly more than 350.000 international students in 44 countries. Gloria leverages her expertise to tackle challenges, enhance support, and advocate for equal opportunities in global education 

Mirko Varano serves as Senior Advisor International Projects at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Mirko has been active in the field of internationalisation of higher education for the past 30 years. He covered different positions of responsibility at the Turin Technical University between 1992–2008 in the field of international relations. He was appointed as CLUSTER network coordinator from 2008 to 2010. He was previously internationalisation officer at KTH Royal Institute of Technology where he was appointed a member of the international strategy group from 2013 to 2016. He is currently an adviser for international projects at the same institution, with a focus on European funding programmes, university networks, and joint programmes. He has coordinated a number of projects and studies over the past 10 years on the impact of joint programmes on HEIs and graduates and he has been involved in the development and implementation of Erasmus Mundus Master Programmes since the piloting phase in 2003. Since 2019 he covers the position of Key Liaison Officer (project manager) on behalf of KTH in the framework of the Unite! European University Initiative Alliance. Mirko is currently co-chairing the FOR-EU subgroup on the Joint European Degree. Mirko was elected Chair of the EAIE Expert Community European Collaborative Programmes for the 2020–2022 term and confirmed for the 2022-2024 term. Mirko holds a Master’s degree in Political Science with a specialisation in International Relations and European Studies from the University of Turin, Italy.  

Yann-Maël Bideau is policy officer at the European Commission. He works in the Higher Education Unit of the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture,. Among other files, Yann-Maël is currently working on the policy experimentation on a joint European degree label. Before joining the European Commission in 2019, he worked in the field of international cooperation in higher education in France, Czechia, Slovakia and Belgium.

Meritxell Chaves has more than thirty years of experience in the higher education sector, in four universities of the Catalan university system, in different functional areas of the University such as academic management, strategic planning, quality and accreditation, and international relations in different organisational cultures. As Secretary General of European University of CHARM-EU since the start of the initiative in 2019 she has been leading CHARM-EU team.

Prof. Antonella Forlino is a Full Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Pavia where she is Vice rector for international affairs and Director of the Centre for Global Strategic Engagement (GLOBEC). Prof Forlino is the Group Leader of the UOR on Targeted therapies, gene editing, and pre-clinical models in rare diseases and innovative therapies of the IRCCS San Matteo Hospital in Pavia. She is the University of Pavia referent person for the European Alliance Project EC2U and represents the EC2U Alliance in the ED-AFFICHE Erasmsu+European Degree Label project. Prof. Forlino obtained her PhD in Biochemistry in 1994 and the Speciality Degree in Genetic in 1997 at the University of Pavia and she spent five years as Research Fellow at the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Her research activity is focused on the molecular, biochemical, and functional study

of genetic skeletal diseases, in particularly the brittle bone disease Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI). She participates to national and international research project focused on bone disorders and recently coordinates the MSCA-DN project CHANGE.

Prof. Willems is professor in education law at the University of Leuven. He is head of the Leuven Centre for Public Law and president of ICOR (Flemish Interuniversity Centre for Education Law and Policy). He is also head of the educational master for social sciences (teacher training programme). He assists the rectory in education matters for KU Leuven and the European University Una Europa. He is project coordinator of ED-AFFICHE. 

Marta Jaworska-Oknińska is a higher education expert and is currently working as a Project Officer and Educational Coordinator in the 4EU+ local office, University of Warsaw. In her role, she oversees international educational projects and the development of digital solutions for a common European learning offer, and is coordinating joint study programmes at both alliance and university level. Prior to joining the 4EU+ team at the University of Warsaw, she gained experience as an academic teacher and researcher during her PhD studies. Her academic interests focused on 16th-17th c. political culture and diplomacy. Held multiple international research fellowships (Russia and Japan), published in Russian, Polish, and English. She defended her PhD thesis in Early Modern Russian History in 2019.

Neringa Narbutiene  is EU-CONEXUS institutional coordinator at Catholic University of Valencia and liaison between ED-AFFICHE consortium and EU-CONEXUS. She has experience in international programmes management, international students recruitment, foreign qualification recognition, and, lately, in European projects management through her professional career at Lithuanian and Spanish higher education institutions. 

Blazhe Todorovski, is a Policy and Project Officer at the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). Blazhe’s main tasks in EQAR are related to support of the Register, working on desk research, analyses, surveys and reports related to quality assurance and recognition, especially in the context of the QA-FIT and IMINQA projects.  

Blazhe holds a master degree in corporate law (LLM) from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Before joining EQAR he worked as a Review Officer at MusiQuE – Music Quality Enhancement, quality assurance agency for higher music education (2018-2022). Blazhe also served as Vice President of the European Students’ Union for two terms (2015-2017). 

Liesbeth Hens joined the Ministry of Education and Training in 2007, and has a passion for education policy and, more specifically, for higher education policies and strategies. During her career, she held various positions in this sector, in higher education institutions and at policy level. She has a special interest in higher education funding and governance issues.

Maria Kapniari is a French teacher holding a graduate diploma in French Language and Literature from Athens University, currently concentrated on a Master’s degree in the field of Adult Education policies. She has worked as a teacher  in  secondary schools and VET schools for adults  for about fifteen years and at present she has been working for the Ministry of Education  since 2012. For about seven years, she has been working for the Department of International and European Relations for Lifelong Learning and VET in the Ministry of Education. She has participated in working groups of EU, dealing with issues of Adult Education policy. She is an external expert for Adult Learning KA1 and KA2 ERASMUS+ projects. She is an accredited evaluator of exams in French language delivered by the French Ministry of Education since 2009.  She has implemented actions & procedures on the promotion of Lifelong Learning in national level, as she has been the National Coordinator for Adult Learning for about five years (2015-2020). For the last three years, she has been working for the Department E' Liaison with the European Higher Education Policy of the Greek Ministry of Education, concentrating  on the subject of European Universities, Microcredentials and validation of non formal learning. She speaks  greek, French, English and Italian. 

László Zentai is the Vice-Rector for Education (2007–2010, 2017–) and the representative of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest in the Academic Council of the CHARM European University Alliance since its foundation. As Vice-Rector, he is the administrative supervisor of the CHARM-EU Alliance’s joint master’s programme (Master's in Global Challenges for Sustainability) at ELTE. He also holds the position of Director of the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics as a full professor. He was serving as the Secretary-General of the International Cartographic Association between 2011 and 2019.