Ashwin FERNANDES

Regional Director, QS Quacquarelli Symonds

Ashwin has been with the QS Quacquarelli Symonds group since 2012. In his current role as Regional Director, he works closely with universities in Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to better understand the local context and to support universities and higher educational institutions in their quest for excellence and capacity building.

Ashwin is an ambassador of the quality movement in these regions and has advocated the need for independent evaluation mechanisms. He actively promotes the use of QS University Rankings and QS Ratings for various purposes, be it students aspiring for higher education in reputed institutions across the globe, government agencies looking to have their universities compete globally or academics looking for partners focused on research initiatives.

He is also responsible to liaise with governmental and public agencies to better understand the changing market dynamics. In the course of 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 panelist on various discussion forums and presented his recommendations on thought provoking topics

Paper title

Rethinking Student Recruitment for International Branch Campuses

Session name

Key Dates

Registration

Early bird open: 25 September 2025
Early bird close: 20 November 2025
Standard open: 21 November 2025

Standard close: 22 February 2026
Late open: 23 February 2026

Abstract submission close: 24 June 2025
Abstract notifications: 14 July 2025

Full paper submission close: 25 August 2025
Full paper notifications: 13 October 2025

Revised full paper submission close: 24 November 2025
Revised full paper notifications: 19 December 2025

Submission open: 27 May 2025
Submission close: 24 June 2025
Notifications: Late September 2025