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It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that our former colleague Tia Loukkola passed away at the end of December.
Tia was a long-serving staff member and manager at the European University Association. She started at EUA in 2008 as a Senior Programme Manager, becoming the Head of Unit for Quality Management and Institutional Evaluation Programme just a year later. Tia then served as Director of Institutional Development from 2014 until she was appointed Deputy Secretary General in Spring 2021. After over a decade at EUA, she was appointed Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division at the OECD in Paris.
During her time at EUA, Tia was active in European policy making in higher education and was a highly respected expert, speaker and author on topics such as quality assurance, recognition, rankings and learning and teaching, both within and outside of Europe. For many years, she was EUA’s representative in the Bologna Follow-up Group and a Board member of the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR), not to mention the driving force behind key events for our community such as the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) and the European Learning & Teaching Forum.
Tia was known for her in-depth understanding of higher education from both policy and practice perspectives. She had a unique capacity to engage with stakeholders and partners through careful listening, negotiation and evidence-based reasoning. The diversity of views and approaches may occasionally have been a challenge, but never an obstacle to her. With Tia at the table, results would be achieved, but never at the price of consensus.
Tia’s analytical skills, understanding of complex topics and different perspectives, her willingness to learn and her way of ‘leading by example’ inspired all those who worked with her. Tia could be demanding, but she was also utterly humane: you could always count on her support, advice and loyalty. She was able to find practical solutions and even tricky compromises in complex situations, without losing sight of the ‘bottom line’, the higher purpose, and who we work for: students, academics, universities and - ultimately - European societies at large.
While we mourn alongside her family and friends, we are grateful for Tia’s life, the passion she brought to her work and her indelible impact here at EUA and throughout the European higher education sector.
© Benjamin Brolet
