Webinar Speakers
Jake Broadhurst
Senior Partnerships Advisor, The University of Edinburgh, UK
Jake has a keen interest in using evaluation to build better university partnerships. From 2021 to 2022 he coordinated the ERASMUS+ EVALUATE project – Developing a Framework for Evaluation of International University partnerships. Working with scholars of evaluation and professional services colleagues across 6 universities in 6 countries, the project group created a Framework and Handbook. This resource is intended to help staff in university international offices, and those involved in international policy and strategy development, to improve the quality of international strategic partnerships through evaluation.
Over many years Jake has helped set up a wide range of academic-led partnerships that enable the University of Edinburgh make a more positive impact on the world. These range from multi-disciplinary responses to global challenges, a biomedical research centre in China, and a new global data institute that will grapple with the darkest corners of the internet to protect children from harm.
As chair of Future UniLab – the Una Europa alliance think-tank – Jake helps universities to explore their common future.
He has also held diverse roles in digital education, international research management and commercialisation. Before joining the University of Edinburgh, jobs included project manager for a healthcare NGO in India; and various roles in TV and film production in Spain.
Jake founded TEDxUniversityofEdinburgh, co-founded the World Access to Higher Education Day and has been awarded the University of Edinburgh Principal’s Medal for Outstanding Service. He holds a Masters of Business Administration MBA from University of Edinburgh; a MSc Applied Computing from Dundee University; and a BSc Environmental Studies from Newcastle Polytechnic.
Jake is an alumnus of the HUMANE Winter School 2022.
Nadine Burquel
Director General, HUMANE, BE
Nadine is the Director General of HUMANE. She works closely with the Chair and the governing bodies on HUMANE’s strategic developments. She manages the HUMANE Office to offer the membership an attractive portfolio of professional development and networking activities. She has been involved with HUMANE since its foundation in the mid-nineties, until December 2022 as Executive Director of the three residential schools (the Barcelona Winter School, the Berlin Summer School and the Asia School).
Nadine has extensive director level experience, having worked with multiple international non-profit organisations, university networks and international boards. She has wide knowledge of leadership, governance and management in higher education institutions, and the global trends in the higher education sector. As EFMD Director of Business School Services she was responsible for a wide portfolio of large global events and communities of practices, interacting with business schools and universities in the wider Europe, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, the Gulf, as well as North and South America. More recently in Maastricht University she was strategic adviser to the leadership of the School of Business and Economics, advising on international accreditation, the internationalisation strategy, and delivering societal impact.
She has significant experience with EU (higher) education policy and programmes since the early days of the Erasmus programme. She has a strong track record of EU projects, leading large EU-funded European university networks and providing technical assistance to the European Commission. She is high level EU policy expert, working at system level in Brussels and beyond, carrying out capacity building and evaluations of EU interventions, having worked with EU Delegations in many countries.
Johanna Kolhinen
Head of Services at Research Services, The University of Helsinki, FI
Johanna Kolhinen, born in 1977, earned her MSc in Economics in 2002 and her Doctorate in Science in Economics, specializing in Management and Organisations, in 2015. Since 2004, she has continuously worked in various roles dedicated to the advancement of university management, administration, and evaluations within the Finnish Higher Education sector.
From 2010 to 2018, Dr. Kolhinen held the position of Evaluation Expert at the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre, where she led several Quality System Audits to provide the compulsory quality certification for higher education institutions in Finland. She also developed thematic evaluation frameworks for entrepreneurship and education organizations’ entrepreneurial initiatives.
In early 2018, Dr. Kolhinen joined the University of Helsinki (UH) as a Senior Advisor on the Research Assessment (RAUH) project, tasked with revising the research assessment framework to align with the enhancement-led approach and balance qualitative and quantitative, responsible assessment approaches. Since 2020, she has led internal evaluation projects, including the HiLIFE 2020 institute review and the analysis of UH’s operational structures and management systems (TOIJO). Additionally, from 2020 to 2023, she took part in the Erasmus+ funded international evaluation development project EVALUATE.
Currently, as Head of Services at UH Research Services, Dr. Kolhinen leads a unit of 12 Senior Advisors, each responsible for providing strategic research management support to faculty leadership and overseeing research integrity procedures. She represents UH as the point of contact for the Coalition of Responsible Research Assessment (CoARA), which UH endorsed and joined in 2022. She also works as an in-house coach supporting individuals, groups and teams in academic leadership development.
Since 2020, she has chaired the national research assessment working group for Higher Education Institutions under the Finnish Association of Research Managers and Administrators (Finn-ARMA).
Lynda Murray
UK Representative for the University of the Witwatersrand, ZA
Lynda Murray is a South African higher education consultant based in London. Part of her time she works for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), providing strategic direction and operational management for Wits’ partnership and advancement activities in the United Kingdom and, more recently, in Europe. In her role as Wits’ Representative, Lynda acts as a contact person for EU- and UK-based Wits alumni, for trusts, foundations and companies that are interested in supporting Wits, and for universities and research entities that wish to link with Wits. Lynda also liaises between the senior executives of Wits University in Johannesburg, and the trustee-directors of Wits Foundation UK which is a UK-registered charitable company.
Lynda is an alumna of Wits University, and her highest degree is a Master of Science by research in botany, focusing on global change biology. Prior to moving to the UK, Lynda was a senior manager at Wits University where she was founding head of Wits’ Academic Planning Office and worked in academic planning for more than ten years after starting work at Wits in student recruitment whilst completing her MSc. During her MSc she was involved in student leadership as co-chair of the Postgraduate Students Association for a year, and as a student member of Wits’ Council, Senate and transformation forum at the time of South Africa’s transition to democracy. At present in the UK, besides representing Wits, Lynda does background work in conservation science to assist her colleagues to evaluate plant species for extinction risk.
Conor Snowden
Head of International Research Engagement, The University of Edinburgh, UK
Dr Conor Snowden is the Head of International Research Engagement within the Edinburgh Research Office. He currently oversees research engagement with the university’s strategic partners as well as a specific responsibility for building equitable research partnerships with low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
He looks to build knowledge and understanding of the opportunities in working with international partners. Previously he managed the university’s QR ODA global challenges research funding. He received his PhD in Geophysics from the University of Edinburgh, after a first degree at Durham University.
Conor has previously worked for the British Council in UK as a Higher Education and Science Advisor and globally as Deputy Director in Tanzania, and Director in Croatia and Slovenia. He has also been active in local politics as a city councillor in Edinburgh and worked in the Scottish Parliament.