Thank you for joining!

(* presentations for which we have received consent to share)

Friday, 20 June 2025

08h30	Registration
09h00	Opening Session
	Plenary 1 (Chair: Ana Camanho)
09h15	Science for Policy in the European Commission: Examples from the field of social sciences Sylke Viola Schnepf (European Commission)
	Session 1 (Chair: Flávia Barbosa)
10h00 10h15 10h30 10h45	Learning mobility in European higher education: How has the Union’s flagship initiative progressed? Miguel Alves Pereira1, Giovanna D’ Inverno2, Ana Camanho3 1 CEGIST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa 2 Dipartimento di Economia e Management, Università di Pisa 3 Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto De-Efficiency of Italian Universities: a comparative analysis of Public, Private, and Online Institutions Gaetano Francesco Coppeta1, Tommaso Agasisti1 1 Politecnico di Milano A robust conditional assessment of performance trends in education and training systems of European regions Fernando Osório1, Flávia Barbosa1, Giovanna D’ Inverno2,3, Ana Camanho1 1 INESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto 2 Dipartimento di Economia e Management, Università di Pisa 3 Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven Assessing Educational Quality for Sustainable Development Goal 4: Insights from PISA Data Barbara Andrade1, Maria Conceição Silva2, Ana Camanho1 1 INESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto 2 CEGE, Católica Porto Business School
11h00	Coffee Break
	Session 2 (Chair: Audrone Jakaitiene)
11h30 11h45 12h00 12h15 12h30	Financial Resilience and Efficiency in European Universities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A VBDEA-Based Analysis Carla Henriques1, Maria Gouveia1, Rodrigo Cardoso1 1 Polytechnic University of Coimbra, ISCAC The Impact of Higher Education on Student’s Subjective Well-Being: Going Beyond Human Capital Theory. Herberto Rodriguez-Regordosa1,2, Juan Enrique Huerta-Wong3, Emili Tortosa-Ausina2 1 Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla 2 Universitat Jaume I 3 Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla Productivity in Danish schools Lajza Prekazi1, Cecilie Tandrup-Rasmussen1, Karsten Bo Larsen1 1 Center for Political Studies (CEPOS) Evaluating Operational Efficiency in European Higher Education Institutions Amid the COVID-19 Disruption Maria Gouveia1, Carla Henriques1, Rodrigo Cardoso1 1 Polytechnic University of Coimbra, ISCAC How is Well-being Important for Mathematics Achievements from PISA 2022? Audrone Jakaitiene1, Laura Ringienėo1, Rimantas Želvys1 1 Vilnius University
12h45	Lunch
	Plenary 2 (Chair: Miguel Alves Pereira)
14h00	The use of composite indicators in education: A tale of beauty contest and policy making Giovanna D’ Inverno (Università di Pisa)
	Session 3 (Chair: Hermilio Vilarinho)
14h45 15h00 15h15 15h30 15h45	Investigating Productivity Trends from 2010-2024 in Danish Municipal Expenditure on Management and Administration Using a DEA Based Malmquist Index Line Andersen1, Karsten Bo Larsen1 1 Center for Political Studies (CEPOS) A multi-level analysis of the impact of mental health on academic performance Xialing Kangs1, Miguel Alves Pereira2 1 Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa 2 CEGIST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM TOWARDS PROACTIVE MANAGEMENT OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS: THE CASE OF UCP João Nuno Gonçalves1, Maria Conceição Silva1, Miguel Vilaça1 1 CEGE, Católica Porto Business School Operational and Social Efficiency Analysis of the Prison Units in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais Maria Eduarda Souza Costa1, Leandro Moreira Pinto2, Diogo Ferraz3, Enzo Barberio Mariano2 1 Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP) 2 Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) 3 Universidade de São Paulo (USP) A Composite Indicator Framework Integrating Regulator Perspectives for Assessing Water Service Quality Hermilio Vilarinho1, Miguel Alves Pereira2, Giovanna D’ Inverno3, Ana Camanho4 1 INEGI, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto 2 CEGIST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa 3 Dipartimento di Economia e Management, Università di Pisa 4 Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto
16h00	Coffee Break
	Plenary 3 (Chair: Maria Conceição Silva)
16h30	Integrating Impact Assessment into Education System Performance Evaluation: Opportunities, Challenges and Applications Gabriela Sicilia (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona)
17h15	Closing Session

Plenary 1

Science for Policy in the European Commission: Examples from the field of social sciences.

This plenary session will illustrate the integral role of academic research in shaping policy within the framework of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), whose mission is to integrate science and knowledge into EU policymaking. Following an introduction to the JRC and its role in the European Commission, the session will delve into institutional mechanisms that empower the JRC and potentially other independent research institutes to inform and influence EU policymaking. In order to illustrate different pathways for informing policy design, Sylke will discuss three example research activities: the Learning Lab on Investing in Quality Education and Training, the pilot project on loneliness and Erasmus mobility research.

Plenary 2

The use of composite indicators in education: A tale of beauty contest and policy making.

Education systems are inherently complex and multidimensional, yet they are often reduced to simple rankings, turning international benchmarking into a “beauty contest” where only the top positions matter. This oversimplification distorts reality and limits meaningful policy learning. In this talk, we propose a more insightful and policy-relevant alternative: building robust, context-sensitive composite indicators through advanced extensions of the Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) model. By integrating methods such as conditional analysis and expert-informed weight restrictions, our approach captures qualitative aspects, accounts for socioeconomic context and aligns with strategic goals. More importantly, it provides policymakers with more actionable information, using composite indicators not just to compare, but to pave the way for smarter educational policies.

Plenary 3

Integrating Impact Assessment into Education System Performance Evaluation: Opportunities, Challenges and Applications.

Most research in efficiency in education has focused on measuring the performance – efficiency, productivity, effectiveness – of education systems, schools/universities, principals, teachers or students to quantify potential improvements, identify best practices or to compare the performance of different groups of units, among others. This approach often relies on the strong assumption that individuals and resources are exogenously determined and that observable and unobserved attributes are equally distributed across units. However, in many contexts – such as comparisons between vocational and general education schools- this assumption is no longer plausible. Overlooking endogeneity in such cases may lead to biased or inequitable conclusions. In these settings, integrating impact evaluation methods with performance analysis provides a valuable framework to control for systematic differences between units, thereby enhancing the validity of efficiency assessments. Moreover, many education policies and programmes – such as external exams, schools’ autonomy, or innovative teaching-learning practices – are designed to improve organisational or individual performance. Yet, their evaluation typically focuses on average educational outcomes, without considering their impact on efficiency or productivity. Combining insights from impact evaluation and production frontier methodologies offers a promising avenue for addressing this gap. It enables researchers and policymakers to assess the causal effects of interventions on performance and to better understand the mechanisms through which these effects occur – whether through changes in inputs, technology, or efficiency. Despite the natural complementarity between these two fields, they have largely evolved in parallel, with limited connection. Only in the last decade have there been some developments to bridge this gap. This talk aims to explore the potential of integrating impact evaluation and frontier methods to advance the performance assessment of education systems. The goal is to contribute to the design of more effective and equitable education policies, grounded in rigorous empirical evidence. The talk will address key methodological and empirical challenges in real-world applications, such as estimating the causal effects of interventions on performance and the comparison of performance across groups with differing characteristics.