QS India Summit 2023

Ashwin has been with the QS Quacquarelli Symonds group since 2012. In his current role as Regional Director, he works closely with universities in Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to better understand the local context and to support universities and higher educational institutions in their quest for excellence and capacity building.

Ashwin is an ambassador of the quality movement in these regions and has advocated the need for independent evaluation mechanisms. He actively promotes the use of QS University Rankings and QS Ratings for various purposes, be it students aspiring for higher education in reputed institutions across the globe, government agencies looking to have their universities compete globally or academics looking for partners focused on research initiatives.

He is also responsible to liaise with governmental and public agencies to better understand the changing market dynamics. In the course of his professional engagement, he has met with senior leaders from the region and is often invited to speak at several conferences and events on university rankings, ratings, education, higher education etc. He has been a panelist on various discussion forums and presented his recommendations on thought provoking topics

Anders Karlsson, PhD, joined Elsevier in 2012 as Vice President, Global Strategic Networks. Before Elsevier he was for five years Counselor for Science and Innovation at the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo, Japan. He is a member of Elsevier’s sustainability board, the Japan chapter chair of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) and a member of the steering committee of the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA) Asia Chapter.

Before serving as Science Counselor, he was for 10 years Professor in Quantum Photonics at the Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, Sweden. In year 2000 he was one of 20 researchers to receive the Future Research Leader grant from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. He also held a special research fellow position 2001-2007 with the Swedish Research Council. His work leading a consortium on quantum information technology was awarded the EU René Descartes Research Prize in 2004. He has been Visiting Scientist at NTT Basic Research Labs, Stanford University as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, École Polytechnique Paris, Zhejiang University and Senior Advisor at Osaka University. He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Engineering Physics, both from KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.

Raluca joined the QS Intelligence Unit team in 2016. Since 2018, she has been focusing on the QS Stars product and has recently stepped up in the role of product manager. She is based in Bucharest, Romania and holds an undergraduate degree in Applied Modern Languages from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi and a Masters degree from the University of Bucharest. Before joining the QS team, Raluca has worked as a consultant for an education company promoting foreign education and providing support to candidates for studying abroad.

Dr. Rupamanjari Ghosh joined Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR, in July 2012, as the Founding Director of the School of Natural Sciences, and the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies. She took over the role of the University’s Vice-Chancellor in 2016, and has since been at the helm of the University’s growth with her transformational leadership.

Prior to joining the University, Dr. Ghosh served as the Dean of School of Physical Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, along with many other important academic and administrative positions. She has held several visiting faculty/scientist positions on invitation abroad and delivered numerous invited research seminars. Recipient of the Stree Shakti Science Samman for her ‘original contribution to Science’, she serves as an expert on the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India committees in Physical Sciences; and in many central and state universities and institutes. She received the DAE (Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India) C V Raman Lecture award (in Physics) in 2018.

Having contributed to science research and training from the university to the school level, she has also served as the Chief Advisor for the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Science textbooks for Classes IX and X, developed afresh under the National Curriculum Framework – 2005. She Co-Chairs the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Higher Education Committee, and is currently a member of the Council of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune. Dr. Ghosh has a Master of Science degree in Physics from the University of Calcutta, India, and Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, New York, USA, where she worked as a Rush Rhees Fellow, selected for ‘outstanding scholarly ability and the promise of exceptional contributions to scholarship and teaching.’ As a researcher, teacher, orator, and an academic administrator par excellence, Dr. Ghosh is well known for her stand and efforts to support the cause of gender justice and environment consciousness in the higher education system.

Dr Jingwen Mu is the Strategic Planning Manager of the University of Auckland. She is a university rankings expert and has been looking after the University of Auckland ranking portfolio since 2018. She leads the University’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mapping initiative and represents the University on partnerships and conferences related to rankings and the SDGs. She has been consulting for the World Bank on the Sub-Saharan Africa Benchmarking Initiative since 2015 and regularly involved in conversations with African institutions in applied sciences, engineering and technology fields. Prior to joining the University, Jingwen headed the consulting team at ShanghaiRanking Consultancy from 2015 to 2018. She was responsible for developing ShanghaiRanking’s consulting and benchmarking frameworks and was leading the consulting initiatives across universities in China and overseas.

Anton John Crace is Editor and Program Designer in the QS Intelligence Unit in Singapore. Through his role, he edits QS’ university news and rankings supplements. He has worked within international education for almost a decade including within an education provider, education agent training platform and media.

He was the Asia Pacific Editor of The PIE News, an international education media outlet, and broke stories including the decision of some universities to pay Indian agents GST and the New Zealand government’s decision to scrap a review into in-study work rights for international students. For many years he was also a familiar face on the conference circuit throughout the Asia Pacific through live tweeting – follow him on Twitter @antoncrace.

Anton was recognized as the Universities Australia Higher Education Journalist of the Year in 2019 at the National Press Club of Australia, and received the Excellence Award for Professional Commentary from the International Education Association of Australian in 2018.