Three keynote speakers have been invited to the conference

Prof Ellen Hazelkorn, director of Research and Enterprise and Dean of the Graduation Research School, Dublin Institute of Technology. Her research interests include the development of research in higher education institutions where she compared the development of research in 25 new higher education institutions  in 17 OECD and non OECD countries (OECD 2005). Currently she is extensively involved in research regarding the impact and influence of higher education ranking on decision making and academic behaviour in association with IMHE and IAU, and the Institute for higher Education Policy (USA). Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education: the Battle for World Class Excellence will be published by Palgrave MacMillan, March 2011.

http://www.dit.ie/researchandenterprise/meettheteam/staffprofiles/professorellenhazelkorn/

http://www.oecd.org/document/13/0,3343,en_2649_35961291_40168205_1_1_1_1,00.html

 

David Labaree, professor at the School of Education, Stanford University USA. He is currently working on various issues related to the development of US HE, both how it is developing and what are the forces that mould it. He explores HE in the larger context of the development of education, describing its development with reference to various tensions within the US social and education system, where he argues here exist in HE, contradictory educational goals, a broad array political constituencies, diverse sources of funds, and multiple forms of authority which merge into a single institutional arena characterized by creative tension and local autonomy. His latest book Someone  has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game if Public Schooling came out this fall from Harvard University Press.

http://www.stanford.edu/~dlabaree/biography.html

 

Páll Skúlason, professor of philosophy at the University of Iceland. He is a former rector of the University of Iceland (1997-2005), and is currently leading an evaluation of the new University of Luxembourg and has been active as a presenter on issues of the nature and quality of universities in Europe.

http://vefir.hi.is/pall/index.php