Speakers

Valérie Van Hees is the coordinator of the Support Centre for Inclusive Higher Education (SIHO, Belgium) and has accumulated over 20 years of experience in the field of policy and inclusion in higher education. Valérie Van Hees is the project manager of two European projects on inclusive mobility, namely the EPFIME project and the PLAR-4-SIMP project. She authored European reports on Inclusive Mobility, as well as a framework self-assessment tool and a training package to support higher education institutions, ministries of education, and national agencies in implementing a sustainable inclusive mobility strategy at institutional and national level.

Magalie Soenen is Policy Officer at the Flemish Ministry for Education and Training, Belgium, and co-Chair of the Bologna Coordination Group on Global Policy Dialogue. Magalie Soenen has 20 years’ experience in internationalisation in higher education, on institutional level (Ghent University), Erasmus+ national agency level (EPOS vzw) and national policy level (Ministry of Education and Training of Belgium/Flemish Community). Magalie Soenen has developed the mobility policy for higher education in Flanders “Brains on the Move”, with special focus on underrepresented groups, their obstacles to mobility and solutions to increase their participation in mobility programmes. Magalie Soenen is the coordinator of two European projects in the field of Inclusive Mobility.

Sofie Vastmans is head of the Office of International Policy at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (Belgium). With the department she facilitates all international processes and inspires and innovates all stakeholders involved. Inclusive mobility is a topic high on the agenda of the department. Sofie has ample experience in international training worldwide, inside and outside Europe, training groups on reflective practices and intercultural competences.

Séverine Van der Stighelen is policy officer at the Office of International Policy at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) where she currently coordinates the project ‘To a blueprint for inclusive mobility’. A group formed by the different stakeholders works on shaping policy and activities to increase the inclusiveness of the mobility programmes at AUAS. Additionally, she coordinates the project ‘From pioneering to institutional adoption of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)’ which aims at designing a framework and support for lecturers to develop COIL projects. Séverine manages the VLIR UOS Global Minds Programme and has broad experience in policy work, organizing international weeks and events.

Nadie Baudry is a project officer at the Support Centre for Inclusive Higher Education (SIHO, Belgium). She has a master's degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology, and a background in the field of training and education. She started at SIHO as a project officer on the topic of student wellbeing, and is now working on Inclusive Mobility. She is currently developing an online training package for the PLAR-4-SIMP project, with the goal of making mobility more accessible to all students, regardless of their backgrounds.

After a career starting in the cultural field and later in the scientific international bookworld, Mira De Moor turned towards higher education, starting at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences in 2012. In 2016 she made the shift towards internationalization in higher education. Since then, she has been building expertise as a policy staff member in outgoing student mobility and European cooperation programmes.

Valerie Mertens has a bachelor in Social work and a master's degree in Sociology and works at the Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education (SIHO) as a Project Officer on the topic Inclusive Mobility. She started at SIHO as a project officer on the topic of student wellbeing, and is now working on Inclusive Mobility. Nowadays she develops, together with Nadie Baudry, an online training package for the PLAR-4-SIMP project. This project aims to make mobility more accessible to all students, regardless of their backgrounds.

As a former student of Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, Axelle Marrannes returned to the institution in 2018. After short stint at the Expertise Network Education, she is now a member of the Department of International Policy. Axelle is responsible for providing support concerning outgoing student mobility towards both students and Expertise Networks. She is also involved in the Department’s communication on mobility programmes and grants and in Artevelde UAS’ Strategic Project focusing on Networking which aims to set up a Strategic Consortium between European Higher Education Institutions.

Martin Bogdan is Policy and Project Officer in ACA and the co-chair of the Thematic Peer Group “Widening Inclusion in Higher Education”, discussing management of national-level funding to increase participation of underrepresented groups in international higher education. He worked as project manager and researcher on European projects in the field of supporting researchers with a refugee background and internationalisation of higher education for society. Previously, he has worked in the European Commission and several NGOs.

Frederik De Decker is the Head of the International Relations Office at Ghent University, the institution he graduated from. He is a board member of various national and international organisations and participates very regularly as an expert in international projects, mainly dealing with internationalisation, educational development, qualifications frameworks and quality assurance. His special interest is the concept of (international/intercultural) learning outcomes/competences: how can these be defined, how to measure these, what is the impact of it on internationalisation. At the Flemish level he is an acknowledged expert on topics such as internationalisation, diversity, lifelong learning and sustainability in higher education and he chairs and participates in various advisory boards.