Dr Emma Francis is the MicroCreds Senior Project Officer at the Irish Universities Association.
MicroCreds is a 5-year initiative receiving €12.3m funding from the Higher Education Authority’s Human Capital Initiative. MicroCreds aims to establish an innovative system of quality-assured and accredited micro-credentials across the seven founding IUA universities. Emma has specific focus on skills gaps and enterprise engagement, leading on the development of MicroCreds Innovate, a sustainable model for university-enterprise collaboration for micro-credentials. She also coordinates the Erasmus+ MicroNet project, a transnational European peer learning network for enhancing micro-credentials development and awareness.

Andy worked at 3 UK universities in international student recruitment and partnership roles for 16 years before joining QS in 2021. His focus is on optimising the student journey on behalf of QS’s partners and believes that every student deserves personalised and premium support during their daunting admissions journey. He often posts badly-lit videos on LinkedIn where he talks about #Admissues (admissions issues) and other topical subjects facing international higher education.

Dr Gozie Offiah is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of Curriculum at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She is also the Clinical Lead for the National Intern Training programme in the Health Service Executive, the chair of the cross-cultural group of tEACH, the International Association of Communication in Healthcare and the Non- Executive Director of the Medical Protection Society for Ireland. Dr Gozie Offiah practised medicine (with a background in Surgery) for over 15 years in the Health Service Executive (HSE). She has held several leadership roles across several organisations in Ireland and Internationally. Her teaching experience spans undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education in health professions education and training. Her teaching interest includes curriculum design, delivery and faculty development. Gozie has a special interest in the role of mentoring and role modelling in the delivery of health care.

Oisín Hassan is Policy Executive for Lifelong Learning and Skills at the Irish Universities Association (IUA), advocating on behalf of eight Irish universities to government and state bodies to ensure Ireland meets its ambitions to offer diverse learning experiences in our ever-changing society and world-of-work. Oisín has responsibility across a range of policy areas, including micro credentials, recognition of prior learning, apprenticeships, as well as flexible and part-time learning.

Prior to joining the IUA, Oisín was Programme Manager of the National Student Engagement Programme (NStEP), a partnership programme of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). The programme worked to enhance and embed student engagement in decision-making across 25 higher education institutions. Oisín recently completed a term on the Icelandic Quality Board for Higher Education, and is also a voluntary member of the strategy team for the Museum of Childhood Ireland. He is a former board member of Quality and Qualifications Ireland and the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. He was previously the Vice President for Academic Affairs for USI as well as a sabbatical officer at his alma mater in Queen’s University Belfast where he studied Law. He recently completed a Masters in Public Policy from Dublin City University.

Dr Niamh Humphries is a Senior Lecturer at the RCSI Graduate School of Healthcare Management. She holds a PhD in Sociology and has been researching health workforce issues in the Irish health system for the past 17 years. Niamh leads the HRB Emerging Investigator Award for the Hospital Doctor Retention and Motivation (HDRM) project and will shortly begin another research project focused on General Practitioner Retention. Niamh is also member of a National Taskforce on the medical workforce.

Volodymyr Sokol has more than 20 years of teaching and research experience in Ukraine, Austria and Germany. He is Postdoctoral Researcher at Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen (RWTH Aachen, Germany) and CEO of Innovation Campus (National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Ukraine). Innovation Campus (campus.kpi.kharkov.ua/en/) is a new learning technology, and it is a winner of silver award in Europe region in Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards 2022.

Volodymyr holds a master degree in computer science (2001, National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”), doctor of technical science (2008, University of Klagenfurt), bachelor in accounting and audit (2018, NTU “KhPI”), and Ph.D. in computer science (2016, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University). He has published extensively in the areas of knowledge management, learning management systems, adaptive learning approaches, and quality of the software development process.

Marine Condette is Senior Manager, Accreditation and Member Services at AACSB International. She has gained extensive experience in international higher education, having worked at Educational Testing Service (ETS), Laureate International Education and the French Embassy in the Netherlands. She is a member of EAIE’s Professional Development Committee and is currently following a DBA in Higher Education Management at the University of Bath, UK.

Mark graduated from Warwick in 2004 (MMORSE), and since then has had a varied career, taking in German customer service and international executive research before landing in higher education via the Development and Alumni office at the University of Birmingham.

Since moving into Strategic Planning, he has spent several years curating and combining datasets, building Tableau workbooks and providing reporting, analysis and insight on a range of topics. These include graduate and student surveys, research bibliometrics and league tables both domestic and international, leading to engagement with a variety of external stakeholders from statutory bodies to special interest groups, league table compilers and service providers, working with QS over a number of years.

This work enables strategic decision-making across the institution, with a particular current focus on the aspiration of the University to be amongst the global top 50 by 2030.

Dr. Maria Farkas is a Professorial Teaching Fellow at Imperial College Business School. Dr. Farkas created the AMBA & BGA award winning course Working in Diverse Organisations which all students at Imperial College Business School are required to attend. The equips each of Imperial’s graduates with a toolkit to thrive in organisations where they must collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds, with numerous areas of expertise, and with varied approaches to problem solving. Dr. Farkas also works with corporate clients to address challenges related to leadership in general, and diversity and inclusion in particular, and co-founded and runs a long-standing workshop for women academics called “Nevertheless She Persisted.”

Dr. Farkas earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College, and holds a Ph.D. in Management and Sociology from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and School of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Jacques is a senior consultant at QSIU with a specific focus on international education, higher education performance analysis, and global engagement strategy. Since Joining QS, he has been working extensively with universities in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia–Pacific. Prior to that, Jacques was engaged with directorial positions that included the strategic orientation and governance of international academic programs and student services, as well as lecturing in International Relations at Sciences Po, Paris.