Consulting

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Training

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Facilitation

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Research

Ninoslav Šćukanec Schmidt

Ninoslav Šćukanec Schmidt

Profile: Founder and Executive Director of IDE since 1999 and an expert in education policy. 26 years of experience.

Key topics: strategic management, funding, equity, inclusion, social dimension, Community Engagement, quality assurance in higher education and qualification frameworks.

Featured:

• Co-chair of the Working Group on the Social Dimension of the pan-European Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) from 2018 to 2024 and led the development of the European Framework for the Social Dimension.
• Consultant for the World Bank, the Council of Europe and the European Commission and a member of the advisory board of the global WAHEN (World Access to Higher Education Network)
• Served on key national bodies in Croatia: the Accreditation Council of the Agency for Science and Higher Education (2010–2018), National Centre for External Evaluation of Education (2013–2021) and the National Council for the Development of Human Potential (2014–2019.).

Thomas
Farnell

Thomas Farnell

Profile: Analyst and expert in education policy. 20 years of experience.

Key topics: education policy analysis, equity and inclusion in education, curriculum modernisation, community engagement in higher education, education and the labour market.

Featured:

• Founded and led the Croatian Lifelong Learning for All Network, which addresses educational inequalities from early childhood education and care to higher education and adult education.
• Lead author of a self-assessment tool for fostering the community engagement of higher education institutions (the so-called TEFCE Toolbox).
• He is the lead author of the European Commission report “Community engagement in higher education: trends, practices and policies” (2020).
• Member of the European Commission’s Network of Experts on the Economic and Social Dimension of Education and Training (ENESET) and a member of the editorial board of the journal Policy Reviews in Higher Education.

Ana Skledar Matijević

Dr. Ana Skledar Matijević

Profile: A researcher and expert in higher education with 20 years of experience in higher education teaching

Key topics: Community Engagement in higher education, service-learning, equity, inclusion and the social dimension of higher education, quality assurance in higher education and qualification frameworks

Selected:

• Extensive experience in leadership roles at a higher education institution
• Author and co-author of dozens of publications, first author of the handbook for service-learning, Service-Learning: Enriching Communities Beyond Borders (2024) and author of the European Commission report Planned online learning vs. Emergency remote teaching implemented during COVID-19 in higher education: lessons learned (2022)

• Extensive experience in designing and leading professional development for higher education faculty

• Member of the European Commission’s Network of Experts on the Economic and Social Dimension of Education and Training (ENESET)