Dr Moja is currently professor of Higher Education at New York University. She has been a special advisor to two ministers of Education on Higher Education policy and was board member of the International Institute of Education Planning (IIEP) in Paris. She has worked as the policy analyst for higher education at the Centre for Education Policy Development in South Africa. She has also held office as the president of the Union of Democratic University Staff Associations (UDUSA) and was a founder member of the organisation. She has published extensively on higher education in South Africa and serves on the UNESCO Scientific Committee for Africa. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Global Centre on Private Financing of Higher Education, an initiative of the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

Dr Esi Sutherland-Addy is senior research fellow, head of the Language, Literature, and Drama Section, Institute of African Studies, and associate director of the African Humanities Institute Program at the University of Ghana. She has held visiting lectureships at Manchester University, University of Indiana, University of Birmingham, and L'Institut des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. She has published on, and continues to work in the areas of African theatre, film and music; mythology; and the role of women in African culture and society. In addition, Ms Sutherland-Addy has held portfolios as deputy minister for Higher Education and Culture and Tourism of Ghana, has conducted studies for the governments of Ghana, Namibia, Ethiopia, UNESCO, UNICEF and the Commonwealth in various aspects of education. She has served on several boards and commissions including the board of governors of the Commonwealth of Learning for 6 years. She currently serves on the advisory board of the International Literacy Institute in the University of Pennsylvania, the National Commission on Culture, Afram Publications Ghana Ltd and Mmofra Foundation. She is a member of the Forum for African Women Educationalists and the African Literature Association.

Prof. Goolam Mohamedbhai is currently the President of the International Association of Universities. He is the former vice-chancellor of the University of Mauritius, a position he held from 1995 to 2005. He studied civil engineering at the University of Manchester, UK, where he obtained his bachelor's and doctor's degrees. In 1980 he did his postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, under a Fulbright-Hays Award. In Mauritius, Prof. Mohamedbhai has served on a number of national boards or councils, and he was also a director of the State Bank of Mauritius (2003-2006). He has undertaken consultancies and commissioned studies for a number of international organisations including IDRC (Canada), the UN Economic Commission for Africa, UNCHS (Habitat), the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa and the Association of African Universities. At the regional/international level, Prof Mohamedbhai has been a member or chairman of several UNESCO committees on higher education for Africa. He has also been chairman of several university associations, including the Association of Commonwealth Universities (2003-2004), the University Mobility in the Indian Ocean Rim (2001-2004) and the University of the Indian Ocean (1998-2005). He is currently chairman of the Regional Scientific Committee for Africa of the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge and a member of the governing Council of the United Nations University. In 2004, he received the distinguished award of Grand Officer of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (GOSK) from the President of Mauritius for his contribution to higher education. He has also been conferred an honorary doctorate by the Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania, and the Institute of Business Management of Karachi, Pakistan.

A Burundi national, Prof. Juma Shabani is currently the director of the cluster office of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), based in Harare, Zimbabwe. He also represents UNESCO in four countries, namely Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in addition to the Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariat. Until 2002, he was the senior specialist in higher education in Africa at the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa, based in Dakar, Senegal. Prior to this appointment, he was a senior specialist in higher education in Eastern and Southern Africa at the UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Technology in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya; deputy secretary-general of the Association of African Universities (AAU) at the AAU secretariat based in Accra, Ghana, for four years and Vice Rector (Vice President) of the University of Burundi for five years. He is currently vice president of the African Academy of Sciences, Co-ordinator of the Virtual Institute for Higher Education in Africa, member of the International Advisory Board of Suffolk University in Boston and Member of the Executive Committee of the Global University Network for Innovations with secretariat in Barcelona, Spain.

He studied in mathematics and physics at the State University of Kharkov (Ukraine) and the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He has been visiting professor/researcher at the University of Bielefeld (Germany), the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Italy) and Sussex University (UK). He speaks and writes fluently in Kiswahili, Kirundi, English, French and Russian. He has published over 80 publications in mathematical physics and higher education.

Dr Brito got her Forestry degree at Eduardo Mondlane and her PhD in Forest Sciences from Colorado State University. Over the years she has held positions as the head of the Forestry Department, co-ordinator of the Research and Consulting Group at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, the academic vice rector of Eduardo Mondlane University, and minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology. Today, she is the advisor for Strategic Planning of the Mayor of Maputo City, and assistant professor of Wood Science and Technology at Eduardo Mondlane University. She developed, over the years, extensive networks in higher education, forestry, ICT and science-related subjects, and she is a member of several boards and steering committees.

Dr Cloete is currently a full-time director of CHET. He was previously research director for the National Commission on Higher Education, coordinator of the Post-secondary Education Report of the National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI) and the Policy Forum of UDUSA. He worked at numerous South African universities including the University of the North, Transkei and Witwatersrand where his teaching and research was mainly concerned with psychology and student services. He was actively involved in academic staff organisation as General Secretary of UDUSA (1993/94) and president of the Wits Staff Association (1991/92). He served on the Minister's Advisory Council for Universities and Technikons. Dr Cloete is Extraordinary Professor of Higher Education, University of Western Cape, visiting professor, Erasmus Mundus Master's Programme in Higher Education, University of Oslo, and honorary research fellow, University of Cape Town. Dr Cloete has published widely in psychology, sociology and higher education policy.

Dr Stumpf is a private consultant. Dr Stumpf was previously Vice Chancellor and CEO of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, Vice Rector at the University of Stellenbosch and the President and CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Before that he was Deputy Director-General of the Department of National Education. As far as his membership of professional bodies is concerned, Dr Stumpf served, amongst others as Executive Officer of the Universities and Technikons Advisory Council (AUT), the SA Council on Education, and the Scientific Advisory Council, Chair of the Committee of Heads of Science Councils and a Commissioner in the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE). He also served as a member of the Board of the Research and Technology Foresight Study of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and was a member of the Council on Higher Education. He is a member of the Higher Education Quality Committee's Board and its Exco and was a member of Higher Education South Africa's Exco and chair of its finance and audit committees. He has recently been appointed to Unisa's Council and is also a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. Dr Stumpf is the author of a number of scientific articles in the field of statistics (qualitative data analysis) and co-author of a book on graphical exploratory data analysis. He also authored and co-authored a large number of policy reports in the field of education, especially in higher education. He has read numerous papers on higher education policy both nationally and internationally.

Before becoming rector of the University of Western Cape, Prof. O'Connell was head of the Western Cape Education Department, from 1995 to October 2001. He obtained a BA Honours degree in hstory from Unisa, and MA and MEd Degrees from Columbia University in New York. O'Connell's contribution to education has been acknowledged and rewarded with a Fullbright Scholarship to the United States, two British Council grants and an Anglo-American Chairman's Fund grant.