Governance

Luc Hittinger works at the Henri Mondor hospital, Créteil, France, where he his professor of cardiology. He was vice rector in research and former rector of the Paris Est Créteil university. He was the representative of the French rector conference in Brussels for three years, and participated in the setting up of the European Universities Alliances.

He joined EUA-IEP in 2017 and conducted, as a chair, 8 IEP institutional evaluations indifferent countries, he was also associated in different evaluations in France and in Europe. He joined the steering committee in 2020 and became the chair in 2023.

Lewis Purser works at the Irish Universities Association, where is Director for Learning, Teaching & Academic Affairs. Within IUA he has overall responsibility for a broad portfolio of policy areas, including access, admissions, teaching and learning, student engagement, skills and graduate outcomes, graduate studies and quality.

Prior to joining IUA in 2005, Lewis worked at the European University Association and with several United Nations agencies in educational, health and social fields. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies at the University of Geneva.

Lewis has been a coordinator for EUA-IEP evaluation teams since 1998, and completed over 25 IEP institutional evaluations, across a broad range of countries. He has also assisted a number of national QA agencies with their work. He is currently a member of the EQAR Register Committee.

Simona Lache is Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Quality Evaluation at Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania, and a professor of Mechanical Engineering. She currently serves on the Institutional Commission of ARACIS (Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), after completing two terms on the ARACIS Council as director of the Accreditation Department.

Simona has extensive expertise in quality assurance and internationalization of higher education, actively contributing as an international reviewer and serving on the boards of several organizations, including INQAAHE, CEENQA, and EUA-IEP.

She is an experienced expert in EUA-IEP and ENQA reviews. She has served as an academic, quality assurance specialist, or project manager on several projects related to the development, implementation, and external assessment of the higher education system, as well as in creating policies and methodologies in quality assurance. Additionally, she has worked on fostering transnational cooperation between universities and businesses to promote entrepreneurship, open innovation, and work-based learning.

Melita is a full professor at the University of Zagreb. She has been involved in higher education policy-making since 2000, serving on a number of national and European bodies in this field. She has participated in projects relating to doctoral training, research capacity, academic leadership and quality assurance in the European Union, South East Europe, Asia and Africa, and participates in institutional, programme and agency evaluations, both individually and as a member of international teams. She is a member of the ENQA panel and is frequently engaged by national agencies as a chair. Since 2017, she has been a member of the European University Association -  Institutional Evaluation Programme, participating in evaluations as member of teams. She is currently serving her second term on the Steering Committee.

Raymond has worked in the higher education sector for all of his career, initially as a researcher (twentieth century British diplomatic history) and then as a senior leader / manager in London. Ten years ago he moved to an independent consultancy role, providing advice and support to a range of universities and colleges in the UK and joined the EUA-IEP. He has extensive experience of EUA-IEP evaluations in the role of a team co-ordinator, having brought his expertise in governance, strategic planning, quality systems and research to more than 20 evaluations. He joined the EUA-IEP Steering Committee in 2021 and greatly values the opportunity this role has given me to work with colleagues from across Europe to support the on-going development of the programme.

Brian Norton is Emeritus Professor of Solar Energy Applications at TU Dublin, President of the European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance, and a Vice-President of the European Academies Science Advisory Council. He was formally President of (what is now) Technological University Dublinfor sixteen years, and prior to that Dean of Engineering at Ulster University.

Brian serves as an EUA-IEP chair and has evaluated universities in Portugal, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. He has also chaired reviews of university research in Finland and Estonia.

His honours include an Honorary Doctorate from Universite de Technologie de Troyes, France, Membership of the Royal Irish Academy, Fellowship of the Irish Academy of Engineering, Honorary Membership of the Daylight Academy, and Honorary Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers.  His awards include the CIBSE Napier Shaw Medal, Energy Institute’s Roscoe Award and American Association of Publishers PROSE Award.

Janis Vetra has been a professor at Riga Stradins University, Latvia, since 1998. His current research interests include anthropological research on the Latvian population, as well as his duties as chair of the university's Research Ethics Committee. From 1992 to 2007, Janis Vetra was the rector of Riga Stradins University. From 2008 to 2022, he headed the Latvian Council of Higher Education, an institution responsible for the institutional accreditation of higher education institutions, the distribution of public funding in higher education, as well as the development of the strategic development of higher education in Latvia.He graduated from the Riga Medical Institute, received a MD, and practiced for sometime as a traumatologist and orthopedist, as well as conducting research in biomechanics. Vetra has been a team member and team chair for EUA-IEP evaluation teams since 2017, and completed 9 IEP institutional evaluations in different countries.

Ivanka Popović is Vice-President of EUA and member of the association’s Board. She is a former Rector of the University of Belgrade, Serbia. She was elected to the EUA Board in 2021, and currently chairs the Association’s Task Force on Ukraine. Ivanka joined the EUA-IEP Steering Committee as an ex-officio member in 2025.

Prior to her term as Rector (2018-2021), Professor Popović served as Vice-Rector for Research (2012-2015) and Vice-Rector for International and Inter-University Cooperation (2015-2018) at the University of Belgrade. She also previously presided the Serbian Rectors’ Conference (2018-2021), the Danube Rectors’ Conference and the Rectors’ Forum of Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans.

Professor Popović studied at the University of Maryland (USA) and at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy (FTM) of the University of Belgrade. She holds a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the latter.

Katarzyna is a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw where she studies the effectiveness of mobile applications in foreign-language teaching. Since 2023 she has been a member of the European Students’ Union Quality Assurance Students’ Experts Pool. She has participated in a number of evaluations including the EUA- IEP initial evaluation at the University of the Republic of San Marino and an EVALAG programme accreditation at the University of Jordan.

At the University of Warsaw, she advances quality assurance and language education as a member of the Council for Foreign-Language Teaching and Proficiency Certification, the Microcredential Implementation Team, the Senate’s Legal & Statutory and Academic Affairs Committees, and the Council for Teaching and Learning (2021–2025). She is a former vice-president of the Doctoral School of Humanities PhD Students’ Union (2022–2024), a TEDx University of Warsaw Speaker (2024), and a member of the Polish National Council of Doctoral Students’ Scientific Communication Team.