The International Advisory Board is composed of five independent and internationally recognized experts in higher education. Its members are not directly affiliated to any of the Alliance’s universities, ensuring objectivity and impartiality.
The International Advisory Board is responsible for monitoring, quality assurance and external advice, including policy advice on the Alliance’s long-term strategy and goals. It provides feedback from an external expert perspective on methodological appropriateness, relevance, integrity, internal coherence and compliance with the established requirements, Work Plan and timelines.
Eva Egron-Polak has been and continues to serve as a member of many Boards and International Advisory Committees of organizations such as the Magna Charta Observatory, the Global Access to Postsecondary Education initiative, and the European University Institute among others.
She was Secretary General of the International Association of Universities from 2002 to 2017 and has promoted and co-authored high-level international reports on higher education. She is the recipient of the Palmes academique from the Government of France and holds a Doctorate honoris causa from Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania, and McMaster University, Canada.
Harvey Charles is Vice Provost for International Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He has served as Senior International Officer and Professor at multiple institutions around the US and is a past President of the Association of International Education Administrators.
Charles’ additional contributions to the field involve teaching, publishing, speaking engagements, consulting and mentoring.
Ligia Deca is currently the Vice-Rector of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest. In 2022-2024, she was the Romanian Minister of Education. During her mandate as a minister, Romania adopted a new legal framework for general and higher education, while also raising the salaries in the education sector with 50% on average.
She has been awarded a PhD in Political Science by the University of Luxembourg, her research focusing on the internationalization of higher education. Author of several papers and studies in the field of education policy, Ligia Deca has also worked as an expert for the Council of Europe, European Commission, EQAR, DAAD and others.
She was awarded the 2023 European Association for International Education (EAIE) Award for Vision and Leadership for her remarkable lifelong contribution to international education system in Romania and Europe, as well as for her achievements throughout her career. Also, in 2023, she has also been a member of the UN Working Group on Teaching Careers. She is also a member of the Executive Board of the Romanian-American Fulbright Commission.
Ruth Ladenheim is the founder, Director, and Senior Consultant of CIECTI, Center of Interdisciplinary Studies in Science, Technology, and Innovation, dedicated to the planning, design, evaluation, and prospective analysis of science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies.
She has held high-responsibility positions both in the private and public sectors. In 2008 she joined the Argentinian government and was appointed as Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, heading the Secretariat of Planning and Policies of the Ministry.
Ladenheim has also been Undersecretary of Technology Transfer at the Faculty of Exact & Natural Sciences, University of Bu
Tore Li, born in 1959, is an author and consultant, living in Oslo, Norway. He has a PhD in research political history, and holds also a master degree in political science. From 2000 to 2020 Li worked as assistant director at the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), Norway’s largest business organization, dealing with research policy issues. Before that Li was science counselor at the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 2000. Li has also worked in the Norwegian ministry for Education and Research and in the Norwegian Ministry for Industry.
As a member of Business Europe’s working group on Research and Innovation from 20
Laura Czerniewicz is professor emerita at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has worked in education all her professional life, as a teacher, teacher educator, educational publisher, policy-maker, public intellectual and scholar.
Laura’s work has been underpinned by an enduring commitment to understanding and addressing digital inequalities; this has manifested most recently in research on changing forms of teaching and learning provision, and in the datafication of education. She serves on the editorial boards of numerous national and international journals; is an interested participant and contributor at relevant events on every continent; is an active reviewer of pertinent articles, books, proposals and the like internationally and is an intermittent blogger at https://czernie.weebly.com.
