Leading Catholic Universities in the XXIst Century

Emeritus Professor John L. Davies has a career which includes senior institutional management and international research teaching and consultancy in over 66 countries, in the field of higher education management, latterly at the University of Bath, UK. He is a former Pro-Vice Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin University (Research and Knowledge Exchange) and at La Trobe University (Quality Asurance). He is currently active in HE consultancy specialising in all aspects of sustainable university development, including 10 Catholic universities and the pontifical system. He has a long experience of setting up and working with QA agencies, including AVEPRO as a Commission member.

David Lock is Secretary-General of the Magna Charta Observatory, has undertaken national higher education scoping studies, directed and contributed to a wide range of leadership development programmes for senior university and ministry leaders in over 30 countries, especially in his former role as Director of International Projects for the Leadership Foundation in HE. He has had a varied career in international higher education and university lea­dership including establishing and being rector of a university in the Middle East and as secretary/director of administration at several UK universities. David co-delivered the first IFCU programme for rectors of Catholic universities, and is particularly active in institutional governance and institutional values.

Professor Chris Brink, CBE is Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University in England, former Rector of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and former Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of Wollongong in Australia. Earlier he was Head of Mathematics and Coordinator for Strategic Planning at the University of Cape Town, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University. He was Convenor of the sector-wide Research Assessment Exercise 2020 in Hong Kong and currently convenes RAE 2026. Chris Brink is known as a champion of the idea of a civic university. His books include The Soul of a University: Why excellence is not enough and The Responsive University and the Crisis in South Africa. Before entering university management he held the A-rating of the National Research Foundation. He is a logician with a Cambridge PhD, an interdisciplinary DPhil, Master’s degrees in mathematics and Philosophy, and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. He has served in an advisory or assessment capacity for various universities and organisations.

Loïc ROCHE is the Head of the Executive Training Department of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), which he joined in 1999. Within the IFCU, which federates 235 Catholic universities, he promotes institutional and training activities and also manages the communications of the network. In particular, he is in charge of the organisation of conferences, colloquia and thematic General Assemblies, thus mobilising its membership and partners. He is a graduate of the institute of d'Etudes Politiques d'Aix-en-Provence and the Institut de Hautes Etudes de l'Amérique Latine (Sorbonne). Among his fields of expertise, apart from the Catholic academic world, are international relations, political science, communication, international university cooperation and certain issues related to development.