Speaker

Thomas Ballhausen

Thomas Ballhausen is a university lecturer at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and currently leads the Inter-University Centre for Science & Art. Current teaching and research areas include media history, cultures of criticism in the digital age and literature and/or artistic research.

Eugen Banauch

Eugen Banauch is Head of the Research Support Department at the Mozarteum University and representative in the Uniko Forum Forschung. He is a literary and cultural scientist. Previous professional positions include Assistant Professor at the Department of Anglistics and American Studies at the University of Vienna, Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Head of the Programme for the Development and Development of the Arts, FWF. He researches and publishes on popular music, Bob Dylan and Jewish literary exile, among other topics.

Marc Philipp Crepaz

Marc Philipp Crepaz is a research associate at the Tirol Institute for Quality in Healthcare with a focus on AI-supported research as well as leadership and organisational topics. His work centres on the reflective use of artificial intelligence in scientific work and the qualitative analysis of complex education and care processes. His current projects combine quality and process management approaches with digital transformation strategies in healthcare and social services.

Alexander Damianisch

Alexander Damianisch leads the department Support Art and Research at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien - Angewandte), where he shapes the development of art and research projects, funding strategies and further perspectives arising from them. He is a member of the board of the Angewandte Interdisciplinary Laboratory and the representative body of the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA). In addition to his teaching, facilitating, writing and consulting activities, he is an active member of ELIA's Future Readiness Working Group and has initiated several Special Interest Groups within the Society for Artistic Research (SAR). His most recent publications include Understanding: Proposing Pragmas Relating Poetics to Politics of Understanding. In: Uncertain Curiosity in Artistic Research, Media and Cultural Studies, edited by Lisa Stuckey and Alexander Damianisch. Cham: Springer 2025 (forthcoming). Prior to his current position, he developed and managed the Austrian funding programme for artistic research (PEEK) at the FWF.

Simone Davidsen

Simone Davidsen has been a research associate in the Quality and Process Management in Healthcare degree programmes since 2018. She previously worked at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration in Oslo. She has master's degrees in sociology and organisation studies. She specialises in qualitative research and evaluation in the healthcare sector.

Maria Fürstaller

Maria Fürstaller is a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Applied Sciences Campus Wien in the Department of Social Affairs. She previously worked at the University of Vienna at the Institute for Educational Science in the Psychoanalytical Pedagogy department. She is Chair of the Ethics Committee at University of Applied Sciences Campus Wien.

Leander Gussmann 

Dr. Leander Gussmann works at the Artistic Research Center (ARC) at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. They hold a PhD (2024) in Museum Ethics and Quality Management in Cultural Institutions. They have served as an expert panel member on more than 40 international accreditation or programme reviews and, for three years, co-wrote the current Tuning CPAD competence framework. They are currently preparing a postdoctoral research proposal in arts and cultural studies.

Georg Hochfellner

Georg Hochfellner is an expert in higher education quality management at University of Applied Sciences Campus Wien. He has been Head of Academic Institutional Development for two years. He deals with programme development, university quality management systems, performance measurement and university development.

Eva Maria Jabinger

Eva Maria Jabinger is director of the master degree programme Quality and Process Management in the Health Care Sector at the fh gesundheit (health university of applied sciences tyrol) since 2017 and the MBA in Healthcare since 2019. She is also head of the TiQG - Tirol Institute for Quality in Healthcare at the fh gesundheit. Her main focus is on risk and project management as well as the implementation of teaching according to the Constructive Alignment model.

Karl Ledermüller

Dr. Karl Ledermüller leads the Department of Evaluation and Quality Development at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business), where he is responsible for the coordination of internal quality assurance as well as the operation and further development of evaluative instruments at WU and is in charge of several processes related to integrity. As a graduate in business education with a doctorate from the Institute for Operations Research, he has years of teaching experience with a focus on finance/statistics/operations research. He conducts research in the field of institutional research and is active at national and international level with various contributions and reviews in various communities.

Bernadette Maul

Bernadette Maul, BA MA, has been working for AQ Austria as a procedure coordinator in the department of accreditation since 2021. She studied Anglistics and Cognitive Linguistics at the University of Vienna, where she subsequently also worked in student administration and event management. Outside of accreditation, her work focuses on digitalization and EDI in higher education institutions and quality assurance.

Patrick Pallhuber

Mag. Patrick Pallhuber, MA is head of Institutional Development at the University College of Teacher Education Tyrol. He studied Economics and Management as well as International Business and has many years of professional experience in quality management at various educational institutions. His work focuses on the development and implementation of quality assurance processes in tertiary education and the curriculum-theoretical analysis of vocational education. He is currently working on participatory quality development processes and the role of higher education development in the context of digital transformation. In 2024, he was awarded the recognition prize of the Ars Docendi - State Prize for Excellent Teaching.

Elmar Pichl

Elmar Pichl was born in Graz in 1973, studied law at the Karl-Franzens University and worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Public Law there. He also worked for the World University Service Austria and the ÖVP federal party. At the beginning of 2007, he moved to the Science Department, where he initially worked as Head of Cabinet for Federal Minister Dr. Johannes Hahn and subsequently served as Head of Division in the Higher Education Section. Elmar Pichl has headed the Higher Education Section since August 1, 2013. Other functions and memberships include: Supervisory Board of OeAD-GmbH, Styrian Research Council, General Assembly of AQ Austria, Board of Trustees of GeoSphere Austria and Board of Trustees of the Diplomatic Academy.

Susanne Oechsner

Susanne Oechsner is based at the Center for Strategic Development in Education, TU Wien, where she has developed and is now leading the social science study in the project FRAME. Before joining TU, she was a senior scientist at the Digital Age Research Center (D!ARC), University of Klagenfurt, and a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS), University of Vienna. She has a background in Social and Cultural Anthropology (Mag.) and Science and Technology Studies (Dr.) and has worked in various national and international research projects (funded by the European Commission in H2020, the FFG and the BMBWF).

Marjo Rauhala

Marjo Rauhala is Senior Advisor for research ethics and Head of Service Unit of Responsible Research Practices at TU Wien and responsible for establishing the research ethics advisory and review structures for the entire university. With an academic background in philosophical and biomedical ethics and social sciences, Marjo Rauhala has broad experience in the field of research ethics and integrity. Since FP7, Marjo Rauhala participates in the European Commission’s working groups on ethics policy and guidance and ethics expert panels reviewing European funded research.

Sybille Roszner

Sybille Roszner is professor at the University College of Teacher Education Vienna with a focus on personal interdisciplinary skills. She is an expert in quality management at university colleges of teacher education in Austria and Head of Quality Management and Human Resources Development Unit at the University College of Teacher Education Vienna. She deals with university quality management systems, university development and the professionalization of teachers

Stephan Schlögl

Stephan Schlögl is Professor of Human-Centered Computing and Research Coordinator for Management & Society at MCI. He has been teaching the basics of digitalisation such as software development, artificial intelligence and human-machine interaction as well as scientific work at MCI since 2013 and conducts research on Human-AI Interaction & Collaboration. After his studies at MCI, a Master's degree at University College London and a PhD at Trinity College Dublin, he spent a year at Télécom ParisTech before returning to MCI. On his initiative, the MCI Ethics Committee was established in 2020 and he has been its chair ever since.

Martina Schöggl

Martina Schöggl is an art historian, curator and organisational developer. She has been Lead of Institutional Development and Quality Culture Unit at the University of Applied Arts Vienna since 2023.

Deidre Stritch

Dr Deirdre Stritch is an independent education and quality assurance consultant. Until September 2021, she held a number of senior management roles with Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), including Programme Manager for Academic Integrity Initiatives. In that role, she was responsible for the implementation of new legislation prohibiting the facilitation of cheating which was introduced in 2019. She continues to provide research and advisory services on academic integrity to both national agencies and higher education institutions. Recently, Dr Stritch supported the academic integrity workstream of the national N-TUTORR (National Technological University Transformation for Resilience and Recovery) project, by developing a Compendium of Resources to Support Academic Integrity Case Management. In 2024, she completed a one-year postdoctoral research fellowship at University College Dublin (UCD), in which she engaged in qualitative and quantitative research on academic integrity and ethical practice in online assessment. This research has contributed to the introduction of revised academic integrity policies and procedures at the university. 

Oliver Vettori

Dr. Oliver Vettori is Dean of Accreditation and Quality Management and Director of Programmes & Teaching Learning at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) as well as the alliance-wide Director of Academic Affairs for the ENGAGE.EU University Initiative. In these functions he is responsible, among others, for WU’s/ENGAGE.EUs educational offers, teaching and learning infrastructure, learning technologies, pedagogical support and quality assurance as well as for coordinating WU’s program portfolio. Oliver Vettori has been working in higher education management and research for more than two decades, as a reviewer, trainer, researcher and consultant in more than 50 different countries on four different continents including work for EUA, ENQA, UNESCO, ASEAN-QA, EU-SHARE and various ministries, supranational organisations and higher education institutions. He holds a doctoral degree in Sociology/Organisation Theory from the University of Vienna and is a Research Associate at the Institute for Organization Studies at WU. He is the author of dozens of research publications in the area of higher education and organisation studies. He is co-editor of the quarterly published handbook ‘Qualität in Studium und Lehre’, serves on the international Editorial Board of Quality in Higher Education and is a member of various academic associations (e.g EAIR, CHER).