The Promise of Higher Education

Hilligje van't Land is Secretary General of the International Association of Universities and Executive Director of the International Universities Bureau. Over the past years, initially as Director and later as Deputy Secretary General, she co-supervised the overall programmatic activities of the IAU and the everyday work of the secretariat, she engaged in developing the IAU Membership base and strengthening the IAU membership development strategy. Prior to joining the IAU, Dr van't Land taught comparative francophone literature at the Universities of Groningen, Laval (Québec) and Avignon et les Pays du Vaucluse. For five years she also headed the Institute for American Universities in Avignon. She has been very active in the field of Canadian Studies globally, since 1987. Hilligje van't Land holds a PhD in comparative contemporary francophone literatures from Groningen University, in the Netherlands and completed a post doc research period at Laval University (Québec).

Andreas Corcoran took up the position as Deputy Secretary General of the International Association of Universities in 2019. Prior to joining the IAU, Dr. Corcoran was Director of Higher Education at SOFIA in Rome, in charge of financial, academic and institutional development and governance of a university in Tanzania. Previously, Dr. Corcoran worked for the University of Kent in the UK, the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation and the German Historical Museum in Berlin. Dr. Corcoran holds a PhD in History and Civilization from the European University Institute in Florence and a Master's from Trinity College Dublin.

Diana-Camelia Iancu is senior fellow of the International Association of Universities since 2019 and Dean of public administration, at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Bucharest), since 2012. For the past decade, she has taught comparative public management in Bucharest and Nijmegen (at RadboudUniversity) and assumed different academic assignments in Greece, France, Slovenia, Spain and the US. Her research interests include international development and administrative capacity building in transitional countries, as well as quality assurance in teaching public administration. Dr. Iancu holds a PhD cum laude in public administration from the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration.