Francesca Villa is a Senior Credential Evaluator at CIMEA, the Italian national information centre for recognition procedures belonging to the NARIC – National Academic Recognition Information Centres – network of the European Union, and the ENIC – European National Information Centres – network of the European Council and of UNESCO.
With over a decade of experience in credential evaluation at CIMEA and international admissions at various Italian institutions of higher education, Francesca specialises in assessing upper secondary school qualifications and transnational education.
In her different roles over the years, she has dedicated herself to developing academic recognition policies aligned with the principles of the Lisbon Recognition Convention and the European Higher Education Area. Francesca has also led several training programmes on recognition and credential evaluation.
In addition to her role at CIMEA, in 2022 Francesca was appointed as the Director of APICE – the Italian Professional Association of Credential Evaluators. This is the first national professional association in the field, based on the UNI Reference Practice 120: 2021 and connecting professionals active in Italian Higher Education Institutions and the national information centre.