Michael Daxner is professor of sociology and president emeritus of the University of Oldenburg, visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin, and senior research fellow at Berghof Conflict Research in Germany. He is the former president of the Magna Charta Observatory of Fundamental University Values and Rights. Early in his career, Dr. Daxner served with the Higher Education Reform and International Desks in the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research in Vienna and then as a professor of higher education at the University of Osnabrück in Germany. In 1986, Dr. Daxner began his service as president of the Carl-von-Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, where he served two terms. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the principal international officer for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for the Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo, and in 2002 became special counselor to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) office in Belgrade. From 2003 to 2004, he was engaged in Afghan higher education reform as commissioned by the German Rectors and German Academic Exchange on behalf of the German Foreign Office and served as an expert on Southeast European education as a counselor with the Austrian Ministry of Science and Education. Dr. Daxner holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of Vienna. He has attended several Salzburg Global Seminar programs.