Renata has 20 years of experience working on higher education (HE) policy and more recently on education policies in general. Currently she manages the project “Learning Makes Sense” at MESA10. In May 2016, she defended her PhD thesis at Central European University in Budapest titled “Transition legacies, rules of appropriateness and ‘modernization agenda’ translation in higher education governance in Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia” and received magna cum laude.

During 2010-2012, Renata served as an advisor on education to Slovakia’s Prime Minister Iveta Radicova. Prior to that she worked in the Slovak Governance Institute, where she delivered several research projects in the area of HE in Slovakia (e.g. on charging illegal fees to students, introduction of academic ethics, corruption risks related to accreditation) and national and international consultancy (e.g. the introduction of the student loan scheme in Bulgaria) in the area of HE and human resources.

During her work in the non-governmental sector, Renata became a recognized expert and in 2009 she was the most cited expert on education in Slovakia. She worked on an advisory capacity to the chairman of the Education Committee of the Slovak Parliament. From 2004 till 2006, she worked at the Slovak Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family, where she started as an analyst and advisor to the State Secretary in the area of HE and human resources. Later, she managed the World Bank Loan for this ministry, which aimed to enhance human resources capacity in the sector of labor and education. Before she started her professional career, she had worked for 6 years as a student representative at the Comenius University and at the national level. Renata works for the “Learning Makes Sense” project at MESA10 as a project manager and senior researcher in the field of higher education and research conducted at higher education institutions.