Manja Klemenčič researches, teaches, advises and consults in the area of sociology and politics of higher education and international and comparative higher education. She is Lecturer on Sociology offering higher education courses at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University and Lecturer in General Education at Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Manja is also local affiliate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University and associate researcher at the Centre for Educational Policy Studies, Faculty of Education at University of Ljubljana. Together with Julie Reuben and Luke Menand she co-chairs the Mahindra Center Seminar Series at Harvard University entitled: Universities: Past, Present, and Future. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Higher Education, and Co-Editor of the Bloomsbury book series Understanding Student Experiences of Higher Education.
Manja obtained D.Phil in Politics and International Studies at Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, M.Phil in European Studies at Department of History at University of Cambridge, and BA in Economics (International Trade) at University of Maribor, Slovenia. During student years, from 1998 to 2001, Manja served as Secretary General of the European Students' Union (then ESIB -The National Unions of Students in Europe) based in Vienna, Austria and later in Brussels, Belgium. ESU is the European platform of 45 National Unions of Students (NUS) from 39 countries representing over 15 million students and is the representative body of higher education students in policy making within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA/Bologna Process) and the European Union.
Native of Slovenia, Manja resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband Khaled El Rouayheb and two children.