New Advisor for Higher Education appointed

Sophie Ratcliff has been newly appointed as CESAER’s Junior Advisor for Higher Education. Sophie graduated with a masters’ degree in political sciences and international relations from the Geneva Graduate Institute. She has a background in diplomacy and gained project management experience working with education and civil society organisations.

Sophie is passionate about bridging science and global governance and recently assisted in the science diplomacy project of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). Before joining the AUF, she pursued her passion for Western Balkans politics at the Embassy of Switzerland in Kosovo.

In addition to her studies and professional experience, Sophie has also been involved in various extracurricular and volunteering activities. She has been particularly active in managing events, including a one-week European Youth Parliament conference on the theme of ‘Building bridges through culture, arts, and education'. Sophie also continues to serve as the Secretary-General of Lyoxa, a consulting platform helping volunteer organisations.

In her free time, Sophie loves going bouldering and discovering all that Brussels has to offer in the cultural and culinary realm. She is excited to continue exploring higher education projects and policy, and is eager to see what the future holds.

At the conclusion of her introduction week, Sophie said:

“It is a great pleasure to discover all aspects of CESAER’s work. Throughout my studies and professional experience, I have realized the importance of universities in creating sustainable, inclusive and resilient societies. Global challenges are calling for enlightened solutions, and Higher Education, Research and Innovation on technical and scientific matters are at the centre of those solutions.

“As Junior Advisor for Higher Education within CESAER’s Secretariat, I look forward to supporting our Member Universities in their commitment and contributions to the future of science and technology.”

Sophie will support CESAER’s initiatives related to higher education policy and development and coordinate the activities of the Task Force Benchmark and of the Task Force Learning and Teaching. Sophie can be found on LinkedIn and her email address is sophie.ratcliff@cesaer.org.