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Dr Ashwin Fernandes is the Executive Director for Africa, Middle East, and South Asia at QS. He works closely with institutions across the regions to better understand the local context and to support the drive for excellence and capacity building.

During his professional engagement, he has met with senior leaders from the region and is often invited to speak at several conferences and events on university rankings, ratings, education, higher education etc. He has been a panellist on various discussion forums and presented his recommendations on thought provoking topics related to higher education.

Dr Fernandes championed the need for an independent rankings framework for the Arab Region and hence was instrumental in developing the QS Arab Region University Rankings in 2014/15. He also founded India’s first nationwide private sector evaluation framework called QS I-GAUGE.

Neeta Prasad is a civil servant in the Government of India and belongs to the 1991 batch of Indian Information Service. Since 2019, she has been heading the International Cooperation Division at the Ministry of Education, spearheading internationalisation efforts under the National Education Policy 2020. She leads India's bilateral and multilateral relations in the education sector including negotiations for various forums such as G20, BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BIMSTEC etc. During India's G20 presidency, she played a key role in shaping consensus on four priorities under the G20 Education Working Group. Additionally, she also oversees important initiatives for the internationalisation of Indian higher education, including the Study in India programme and the Scheme for Promotion of Academic Research Collaboration.

Alison Barrett MBE leads the India operations of the British Council across our work in English, Education and Arts. She is committed to strengthening the educational and cultural exchange between India and the UK by building connections, understanding and trust. Alison has worked for the British Council for over 25 years in a variety of roles in our Teaching, Examinations and Cultural Engagement units supporting the building of connections between the UK and our network overseas.  Most of her career has been spent in the Asia-Pacific region, with posts based in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, UAE and Thailand.  

Vik Singh is a Trade and Investment Commissioner for Austrade in South Asia. He leads Austrade’s Technology and Innovation teams across the dynamic and fast-growing South Asia Region. Vik was appointed to India in 2023. He was previously based in Sydney, leading various trade, and digital transformation projects at Austrade.

Jugnu has over 25 years of experience landscaping international education access in India through cross-functional projects.