María José Lemaitre is Executive Director of the Centro Interuniversitario de Desarrollo (CINDA), an international organisation dedicated to promoting effective higher education policy, based in Santiago, Chile. A sociologist and education specialist, María José has been responsible for the development and implementation of quality assurance processes in higher education in Chile. She has chaired the Accreditation Agencies International Network (INQAAHE) and the Iberoamerican Network for Quality Assurance (RIACES) and has served in the Advisory Council of the Spanish Quality Assurance agency (ANECA) and in the International Commission for the Council for Higher Education Accreditation of the United States (CHEA). She has provided advice on higher education and quality assurance issues to governments, higher education institutions and bilateral and multilateral organisations in many regions of the world.
Pedro N. Teixeira is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics (University of Porto) and Director of CIPES (Centre of Research on Higher Education Policy). He was previously Vice Rector at the University of Porto, responsible for the area of Academic Affairs and Teaching and Learning. Pedro is special adviser on higher education to the President of Portugal and a member of the evaluation panels for the Institutional Evaluation Programme of the European University Association (EUA) and the Reviews of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). He holds a PhD in Economics (Exeter University, UK), a masters in the Economics of Higher Education at CHEPS (University of Twente, The Netherlands), and a bachelor’s degree in Economics (University of Porto). His research interests focus on the economics of higher education, notably on markets and privatisation, and the development of human capital as a research programme.
Thomas Weko is a senior analyst at the OECD specialising in higher education. He coordinated the review. He worked on OECD’s Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society in 2005-2006, and subsequently served in the US Department of Education, first as Associate Commissioner for Postsecondary, Adult, and Career Education at the National Center for Education Statistics, and then as Director of the Policy and Program Studies Service. He previously worked at the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board, at the US Government Accountability Office, and as a university professor.
Simon Roy is an analyst at the OECD, with a background in international higher education policy. He joined the OECD in 2017 from the European Commission, where he was a policy officer in DG Education and Culture's higher education policy team. During his time at the Commission, Simon worked on analysis and policy cooperation activities involving EU Member States and partner countries, including in the fields of higher education funding, performance measurement and graduate skills and employability. He coordinated preparation of the Commission's most recent Communication on higher education, focused on EU cooperation in the field and published in May 2017.