Dr Shaheen Motala-Timol holds a PhD in Polymer Chemistry and is a quality assurance practitioner from Mauritius with more than 15 years working in senior roles in quality assurance in higher education. She is the Head of Academic and Quality Enhancement at Middlesex University Mauritius since August 2023. Prior to that, she was heading the Regulatory Affairs and Accreditation Division of the Higher Education Commission Mauritius. Her current research focuses on the challenges and opportunities of cross border higher education, examining the impact of internationalization policies in Mauritius. She has served as reviewer and consultant for several international and governmental higher education regulatory bodies.

Dr. Shaheen Motala-Timol was a Hubert H Humphrey Fellow at Pennsylvania State University in 2016-2017 and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College. She is an alumna of the Global Young Academy, where she was a member of the Executive Committee in 2017-18. She is since May 2024 the Chair of the African Chapter of the International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA-Africa), which aims is to strengthen the science policy interface in Africa.