Professor Wiberg, currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Lund University, will take up the position from 1 February 2015 on a part-time basis, combining this role with her current duties at Lund. The creation of the new position arises from a new strategic framework for the network, discussed and developed by U21’s directors over the last six months. Professor Wiberg will be instrumental in more closely defining and implementing this framework, building on the solid base of experience developed over the past 18 years.
“It is an honour for me to be appointed as executive director. U21 is one of our highly prioritised and highly appreciated networks. The position has not previously existed; it is a brand new post and it will naturally be very interesting and exciting to develop this role from scratch”, said Eva Wiberg.
Professor Wiberg is known to many around the U21 network, coming from one of the network’s earliest member universities, but is also greatly respected in the wider international higher education community, through her active engagement at national, European and international levels. She is currently a full professor at Lund University, where she completed her PhD in Romance Languages in 1997, and was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor there in 2012. Professor Wiberg has been a national Bologna expert in Sweden since 2009 and has been actively involved in LERU (League of European Research Universities) and also U21 for a number of years.
Speaking on the appointment, Professor Sir David Eastwood, current chair of the Universitas 21 network commented: “I am delighted that we have identified in Professor Eva Wiberg an extremely strong and enthusiastic person to take up this role in 2015. The quality of the candidates was extremely high and I am confident that Professor Wiberg will be an excellent addition to the network, providing the leadership, experience and direction to take Universitas 21 into the next phase of its growth and development. I very much look forward to working with her over the coming years.”
Professor Wiberg will remain based at Lund University, but will work closely with the other members of the U21 Secretariat in the UK, America and Australia.