About the Author: Leon Cremonini is a Senior Policy Officer at the Directorate for Strategy and Policy, University of Twente, the Netherlands. Between March 2018 and November 2019 Leon was the Managing Director of the Ethiopian Institute for Higher Education (EIHE) at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia (2018-2019), following a 12-year tenure as researcher at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente. He worked in Europe the United States and Africa, focusing on higher education policy reform in several countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Main areas of expertise include excellence policies, internationalization, quality assessment, university and programme rankings, and equity and access to higher education, particularly for historically disadvantaged populations and refugees. Leon presented papers and published on these topics. He has been a researcher on several European Union-sponsored projects. He has worked as a consultant to the European Union's delegation to Syria on higher education in emergencies project, and as a consultant for the development of the national strategy for higher education in Ethiopia.
Professor John Taylor has over 20 years of experience as a senior manager in higher education, working at the Universes of Leeds, Sheffield and Southampton before moving into an academic career. As Director of Planning at the University of Southampton, he was responsible for all aspects of strategic and operational planning; as well as management information and resource allocation. He studied national and international trends in higher education, key policy areas such as selectivity in research, broadening access, lifelong learning and diversification of funding. John was involved with all the main policy developments in UK higher education. John moved into an academic career at the University of Bath, then as Professor of Higher Education Management and Policy at the University of Southampton, and as Professor of Higher Education Management and Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor, University of Liverpool. He is currently a visiting professor at Lancaster University's Department of Educational Research. Over the years, John has worked in Australia, South Africa, Croatia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Russia, Germany, Portugal, Finland, China, Cyprus, Pakistan, Jamaica, Canada, Uruguay and the United States. He also conducted professional development trainings for the European Association for International Education (EAIE). John as conducted comparative studies on strategy and planning; resource allocation (including inter alia marketization and value for money); governance and organizational structures; internationalization and globalization; quality management in higher education; and access and widening participation.
K.M. Joshi is Professor of Economics of Higher Education in the Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar, India. K.M. Joshi has been a visiting Professor/researcher at University of Toronto, Central European University, University of Philippines, Mykolas Romeris University, University of Lyon 2, Nagoya University and University of Paris 8. He is recipient of eight distinguished international fellowships including the Ford Foundation's 'Asia Fellows' award and the French 'Hermes' fellowship. Dr. Joshi holds Ph.D. in Economics from Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Postgraduate Diploma from ISS, The Hague, Netherlands and postdoctoral from UMR Education and Politiques, Institut National de Recherche Pedagogique, Lyon. He has delivered about 29 keynote addresses in international and national seminars/workshops. His areas of research and specialization are Economics of Higher Education, Higher Education Reforms, Private Higher Education and International Economics. Dr. K.M. Joshi has 9 edited books and more than 47 articles to his credit.