Hans Kristjan Gudmundsson

Dr. Hans Kristjan Gudmundsson, is since 2008 Dean of the School of Business and Science at the University of Akureyri. He is a physicist with a doctoral degree in Solid State Physics (TechnD) from KTH, Stockholm, 1982. After research, teaching and administrative careers at KTH, the University of Iceland and the Iceland Technology Institute, IceTec, Hans Kristjan Gudmundsson served as scientific counselor with the European Free Trade Association, EFTA, from 1992 to 1994 and at the Icelandic Mission to the European Union in Brussels from 1995 to 1999.

He was member of the Nordic Science Policy Council 1996 to 1999, as chairman 1998-1999. Hans Kristjan Gudmundsson served from 1999 to 2003 as Rector of NorFA, the Nordic Academy for Advanced Study, an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers promoting doctoral education. In 2004 he was chairman of the NorFA Governing Board. In the years 2004 to 2006 he served as vice chairman of IGFA, the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research.

From 2003 to 2008 he was the general director of RANNIS, the Icelandic Centre for Research, a governmental institution supporting research, technological development and innovation, providing professional assistance to the preparation and implementation of science and technology policy in Iceland.

Helena Sebkova

Dr. Helena Sebkova is the director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies (public research institution dealing primarily with applied research in higher/tertiary education) in Prague from 1991. The main areas of her interest and research work focus on quality assurance and quality culture, internationalization with respect to the Bologna process and its priorities, higher education management and governance, respectively, collaboration of higher education institutions with external stakeholders in general and employers in particular. In 2004-2008, she was the national coordinator of the multinational OECD project “Thematic Review of Tertiary Education”, and edited the publication “Country Background Report” elaborated for the project purposes. This major publication on Czech tertiary education also dealt with the doctoral studies, research and development of academic staff and academic profession.

Fred L. Hall

Fred L. Hall served as the Vice-Provost (Graduate Education) and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada from August 2007 through July 2011. During that time he was also appointed as a tenured Professor in the Civil Engineering Department. Prior to 2007, he had been the Dean of Graduate Studies at McMaster University in Ontario for eight years, and had earlier served six years as an Associate Dean of Graduate Studies there. For the whole of his 35 year career at McMaster he was appointed jointly between Geography and Civil Engineering, with a focus on urban transportation. From 1997 until his appointment as Dean in 1999, he was Director [head] of the School of Geography and Geology. He is author or co-author of roughly 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as numerous conference papers and several book chapters, primarily in the areas of freeway traffic flow theory, freeway operations and quality of service, and earlier on the impacts of transportation noise on residential communities. From 2005 on, he also conducted research on cross-national comparisons of aspects of doctoral education.

He served as President of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (2007), as well as two additional years on the CAGS Board as Vice-President and Past President. He has given presentations at several CAGS annual meetings, and has also presented several times at meetings of the US Council of Graduate Schools as well as at the Australian conference on Quality in Postgraduate Research.

Barbara Evans

Professor Barbara Evans is the Former Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of British Columbia. Recognized for her international leadership in graduate education, Barbara has been a keynote speaker at many conferences focused on graduate education in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. Dean Evans was recently named as one of the top 50 current and emerging leaders in Australia by Advance, the leading global network of Australians and alumni abroad. She was honored at the Advance Women’s Leadership Summit in Sydney. She is also an Olympian, representing Australia in Gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympic Games 1964 and the World Gymnastics Championships in Germany 1966.

Originally a comparative physiologist and zoologist, Barbara’s research resulted in over 100 publications and she is author and editor of three award-winning Biology textbooks for tertiary and senior secondary students, each now in their fourth edition.

Renato Janine Ribeiro

Renato Janine Ribeiro, Ph. D. in Philosophy (1984), has been a Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of São Paulo since 1993. He wrote several books in political philosophy. From 1973 to 1984 most of his work was concentrated on the English thinker Thomas Hobbes. Later he kept his interest in political philosophy but had a growing concern for the problems that arise when one tries to build a democracy in a dissident Western society, as he characterizes Brazil and some other countries in Latin America and elsewhere. He won the Jabuti award of the best essay published in Brazil in 2000 with A sociedade contra o social – o alto custo da vida pública no Brasil, his first essay to deal with that subject.

He has been a Tinker Professor at the University of Columbia at New York during 2003-4. From April 2004 to October 2008 he has been Evaluation Director at Capes, Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education. As Evaluation Director he was directly responsible for the permanent evaluation of ca. 1,300 Ph.D. programs and 2,500 Master degrees programs in Brazil and helped to create many of them. He has been decorated by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso with the National Order of Scientific Merit, in 1997, and by President Lula da Silva with the Rio Branco Order in 2009. He writes an op-ed column at “Valor economico” (www.valoronline.com.br) on Brazilian and international politics every Monday.

Helene Marsh

Helene Marsh is Dean of Graduate Research Studies and Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University (JCU).

Helene has been Convenor of the Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies for two terms 2002-3 and 2009-10 and has contributed to the literature on doctoral pedagogy and policy.

The focus of her research in Environmental Science has been marine mammal conservation biology. She is currently President of the Society of Marine Mammalogy.

Helene is committed to informing interdisciplinary solutions to conservation problems and has collaborated widely with colleagues in other disciplines. The policy outcomes of her research include significant contributions to the science base for the management of dugongs (sea cows) in northern Australia and several other dugong range states. Her research has also provided the conceptual basis for the ‘Back on Track’ Program conducted by the Queensland environment department. Helene chairs the Threatened Species Scientific Committee that reports to the Australian Minister of Environment.

Helene has received several international awards for her contributions to dugong research and conservation. She has authored more than 200 scientific publications and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

See More

Catherine Manathunga

Catherine Manathunga is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Victoria University Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand and is an historian, who draws together expertise in historical, sociological and cultural studies research to bring an innovative, interdisciplinary perspective to educational research, particularly focusing on the tertiary sector. She has current research projects on doctoral supervision pedagogy, doctoral graduate outcomes and attributes, interdisciplinarity and the history of university teaching and learning in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Her earlier research was on developing students’ intercultural knowledge and communication skills at the tertiary level. She has published a co-authored monograph on educational history, A class of its own: a history of Queensland University of Technology; a co-edited oral history monograph, Making a place: an oral history of academic development in Australia; and has published in Australian, Irish, American and British journals in the fields of international relations, higher education and academic development. She has a book contract with Routledge to write a sole-authored monograph provisionally entitled Intercultural Postgraduate Supervision to be completed by 30 November 2012.

See complete CV

Margaret Kiley

Dr. Margaret Kiley works in the Center for Higher Education, Learning and Teaching at the Australian National University (ANU). Her research expertise for over fifteen years has been in research education including: the examination of theses; experiences of international students undertaking research degrees; candidates and supervisors’ conceptions of research; and candidates and supervisors’ expectations of the research experience.

Margaret has been awarded several Australian Learning and Teaching Council research grants including: mapping Honours across Australian universities, examining the curriculum in Australian universities which support the skill development doctoral candidates; pathways into the Australian doctorate; and the possible role of coursework masters in preparing students for PhD entry. She is also a CI on an ARC Discovery grant looking at the role of the oral exam in the doctoral assessment process and a member of an ALTC teaching grant related to leadership in supervisor development.

Jeanette Fyffe

Dr. Jeannete Fyffe works in the Curriculum Teaching and Learning Centre (CTLC) at La Trobe Universityin Bundoora, Victoria, Australia as a Curriculum and Academic Developer, responsible for programs for tutors and new academic staff.

Professor Fyffe was awarded her PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Melbourne in 2003 and was previously the Academic Programs and Projects Coordinator in the School of Graduate Research there. In this role Jeanette was responsible for the postgraduate supervision development program, and for facilitating good practice in departments and faculties in the management and support of research higher degree students.