University of Leuven

Ides Nicaise

Professor

Phone number: +32 16 32 33 37

E-mail: ides.nicaise@kuleuven.be

Personal page

Prof. Ides Nicaise has a background in economics and wrote his PhD on ‘Poverty and human capital’, i.e. the relationships between persistent poverty and inequalities in the education system. He works since 1989 as a research manager, head of unit ‘education and lifelong learning’ at HIVA (Research Institute for Work and Society), a multidisciplinary research institute of the University of Leuven (Flemish Louvain). He further specialised in social policy, more precisely the relationships between education and social inclusion (in rich as well as developing countries). He teaches ‘economics of education’, ‘education and society’, ‘lifelong learning and equal opportunities’ at the School of Education Sciences of the same university.

He was involved in many research projects at national, European and international levels dealing with education, ranging from educational funding to lifelong learning and initial education for socially excluded groups. Projects in the field of ECEC include the CARE project (EU-FP7) about quality and inclusiveness of ECEC in EU countries (ongoing) and several national research projects on ECEC for socially disadvantaged groups. At the Flemish level, he has the lead of the Policy Research Centre ‘Education and school careers’ (Steunpunt Studie- en Schoolloopbanen), an inter-university research consortium accredited by the Flemish Governement for medium-term strategic policy research in the field of education and lifelong learning.

Özgün Ünver

Research Associate

Phone number: +32 (0)16 37 78 01

E-mail: Ozgun.Unver@kuleuven.be

Personal page

Özgün Ünver is a research associate at HIVA–KU Leuven (Belgium). She holds a Master’s Degree in Quantitative Analysis in the Social Sciences (2012 – KU Leuven), a Master’s Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology (2010 – KU Leuven) and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations (2008 – Istanbul Bilgi University). She has professional experience in European-level project management as well as applied research. Since February 2014, she is employed as a junior researcher in the CARE project and she is working on a PhD on the inclusiveness of Early Childhood Education and Care provisions in Europe.