In April this year, CEU alumna Kristina Kallas became Estonia’s Minister of Education and Research, where she leads education policy and initiatives for the country. Kallas graduated from CEU in 2002 with an MA from the Department of History, after which she earned her PhD at the University of Tartu in Estonia. There, she specialized in nationalism and geopolitical security related to Russian-speaking minorities, as well as integration policy in Estonia and other European countries. She is one of the founders of the Eesti 200 political party, a social-liberal party in Estonia, and served as its first chairwoman.
CEU spoke with Kallas about her leadership role in Estonia’s ministry and how her studies at CEU have shaped her trajectory advancing education and research. This article is part of the series, “CEU Women Making a Difference”, which features outstanding CEU alumni changemakers.
What does your current work as Estonia's Minister of Education and Research entail?
Estonia is a tiny country, and we have only 13 members in the cabinet, which means that the Minister of Education and Research is responsible for everything from pre-school to higher education, science and adult education. So basically, the whole life cycle related to one’s educational life is on my plate [...]