17 Sep Ninoslav Šćukanec Schmidt, Executive Director
Ninoslav Šćukanec Schmidt is the founder of the Institute for the Development of Education in Zagreb, Croatia, where he served as Executive Director since 1999. He has dedicated his career to the development of higher education policies. His main expertise is in institutional governance and strategic management of higher education, financing of higher education, the social dimension and community engagement in higher education, quality assurance in higher education, and in the development of qualifications frameworks.
In 2021-24, he is co-chairing the Pan-European Bologna Follow-up Working Group on Social Dimension, with 27 country members and 5 consultative members. He successfully co-chaired the previous 2018-2020 Bologna Follow-up Advisory Group on Social Dimension that created the strategic international document “Principles and Guidelines for Social Dimension” to help 49 countries in the European Higher Education Area improve social dimension policies. He is a senior expert of the European Expert Network on Economics of Education, which includes some of the leading European experts in education, and advises the European Commission.
In Croatia, he was a member of the Accreditation Council of the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (2010-2018) and a member of the Governing Board of the National Center for External Evaluation of Education (2013-2021). In 2014-2019, he was a member of the National Council for Human Resources Development and 2015-2021 member of the National Committee for Enhancing the Social Dimension of Higher Education.
He has repeatedly served as consultant and expert in prominent international organizations like the World Bank and the European Commission, various government bodies, higher education institutions and professional organizations, working on the reform and development of higher education, as well as on social and economic development. He is the author and editor of numerous professional and scientific publications on higher education policy development.