Austrian Cross of Honour for continuing education expert Anke Hanft
The Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen has awarded Prof. Dr Anke Hanft, educational researcher at the University of Oldenburg and long-standing director of the C3L, the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art I Class for her many years of commitment to quality assurance at Austrian universities. Hanft received the honour at a ceremony in Vienna "for her services to the Republic of Austria".
The continuing education expert was President of the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria (AQ Austria) from 2012 to 2022 and Chair of the 14-member international Board, the agency's central decision-making body. The tasks of AQ Austria include the accreditation of new Austrian universities and degree programmes as well as the review of the quality management systems of existing universities. Previously, from 2004 to 2012, she headed the international scientific steering group of the Austrian Quality Assurance Agency (AQA), which promoted and supervised quality assurance at Austrian universities. The steering group was responsible for the quality, scientific rigour and independence of this work, developed procedures, guidelines and standards and appointed reviewers. The Oldenburg education researcher also represented the agency externally.
Born in Oldenburg, she completed her doctorate and habilitation in economics at the University of Hamburg. In 1997, she was appointed to the professorship of "Continuing Education Planning and Management" at the University of Koblenz-Landau. In 2000, Hanft moved to the University of Oldenburg, where she took over the professorship of "Further Education and Adult Education" and developed various part-time, internet-based degree programmes. From 2006 to 2019, the educational researcher was Director of the C3L - Centre for Lifelong Learning and made a significant contribution to making advanced scientific training a focal point of the University of Oldenburg. She was a member of the University Council of the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Board of Trustees of Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences and the Advisory Board of the Fraunhofer Academy. She has been retired since 2021.