Andy Youell – Director of Data Policy and Governance
Higher Education Statistics Agency (UK)

Andy has spent 25 years working with data and information and with the systems and people that process it. Four years in the aviation industry was followed by five years with the UK HE funding councils where he ran data collections and liaised with the newly-formed Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). In 1996 he joined HESA in a role focussed on improving the standard, and the broader understanding, of data quality. Andy became Director of Quality and Development in 1998 and assumed responsibility for the development of HESA systems and for quality issues throughout HESA via the ISO9001 standard.

In 2013 Andy was appointed Director of the Higher Education Data & Information Improvement Programme (HEDIIP) which was created to reduce the burden and increase the value and accessibility of data and information about HE.
Andy has advised governments in Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and Oman on data processing and quality issues and he has worked on a UN project in Jordan that developed simple statistical reporting for universities across the Middle East.

Britta Piel – Head of Funding & Liaison Offices
Freie Universität Berlin (Germany)

Britta Piel is Head of Funding & Liaison Offices at Freie Universität Berlin’s (FUB) Center for International Cooperation, a unit focusing on strategic internationalization. Her tasks include advancing the university’s internationalization strategy, managing the university’s network of liaison offices with representations in New York, Brussels, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Beijing, New Delhi and Cairo, and initiating new cooperation formats through seed funding.

Before joining Freie Universität Berlin, Britta Piel worked as Deputy Director and Head of Student and Scholar Services at RWTH Aachen University’s International Office, and as internationalization manager at Cologne University of Applied Sciences and the University of Bonn. Britta Piel studied American Studies, Comparative Literature, and Geography at the University of Bonn and the University of Missouri, and holds an Master’s degree in American Studies from Saint Louis University.

Goele Bossaert – Data co-ordinator
AHOVOKS at the Ministry of Education and Training in Flanders (Belgium)

Goele coordinates a team of 7 people responsible for quality assessment and reporting on data, registered in the databases on higher and adult education (DHO and DAVINCI).
Goele holds a Master degree in Educational Sciences (2005), a Teacher’s degree (Specifieke Lerarenopleiding, 2006) and a Master degree in Statistics (QASS, 2013).
She obtained her Phd in Educational Sciences (2012) on the social participation of students with special educational needs in inclusive secondary education.

Milton Obamba – Lecturer Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
University of Central Lancashire (UK)

Dr. Milton Obamba is currently Lecturer at the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. He was previously Research Fellow in the Centre for Higher Education Policy Research at the Leeds Beckett University; where he held Carnegie Centenary PhD Fellowship from 2007 until 2011. He has served as Visiting Research Fellow at Nordiska Afrikainstitutet at the University of Uppsala and also the African Studies Centre at Leiden University, Netherlands. Dr. Obamba’s current research interests and publications focus on the interdisciplinary areas of education; including policy analysis, governance, international education, international development, as well as transnational knowledge partnerships. His most recent book is Transnationally Partnered University: Insights from Research &Sustainable Development Collaborations in Africa published by Palgrave Macmillan as part of the International and Development Education series (2014). Other recent publications have appeared in the Sage Handbook of International Higher Education (2012) Higher Education Policy, Compare: Journal of International and Comparative Education, and the Journal of Higher Education in Africa, among others.

Paul Leys – Policy advisor Internationalisation
Ghent University (Belgium)

Paul Leys is working as a policy advisor responsible for monitoring and analysis of data in internationalisation. Together with a colleague he created eQuATIC, a tool where available data is brought together in a structural way, in order to improve the quality of international cooperation. He is responsible for reshaping procedures to reduce the administrative burden for students and staff involved in international mobility. The correct application of ECTS at Ghent University is another area of his expertise.

Paul Leys graduated as MA of Science in EU-Studies at Ghent University and started working at his alma mater soon after his graduation. After more than five years at the Office of Counselling, he joined the International Relations Office of Ghent University in May 2012.

Pieter Vos – Data analyst
Ministry of Education and Training in Flanders (Belgium)

Dr. Pieter Vos graduated at the KU Leuven in theoretical psychology. After a few years of teaching in secondary and tertiary education he went on to do a phd in educational sciences. After finishing his phd he did a post-doc year and since 2012 he has been working as the data-analyst for the Department of Education in which he is responsible for the use of higher education data for policy and involved in national and international research.