Manja Klemencic is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. In her PhD studies at the Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge, she investigated the role of strategic relationships and coalitions among EU governments within EU unanimity-rule negotiations in the case of the Convention on the Future of Europe and the 2003/04 intergovernmental Conference. In 2003/04, Dr Klemencic was a Fulbright Pre-doctoral Researcher and Fellow at the Center for Business and Government at KSG, and, in 2004, a UACES Visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. 

At present, Dr Klemencic also works on European higher education policies and politics. In this area, she is particularly interested in the implications of the shifting demographics of student population in Europe (and around the world) on the financial and organisational strategising within higher education institutions. She is also interested in European higher education politics, and, in particular the impact that interests groups active in the field of education (such as EUA, ESIB, ETUCE and others) have on European education policies.  

Her research on higher education draws from the varied working experiences in the field. From November 1998 until September 2001, she served as elected and full-time Secretary-General of the ESIB-The National Unions of Students in Europe representing over 10 million students from 34 countries towards European institutions and organisations. During her mandate, ESIB became one of the key players in the Bologna Process as well as being active in the Stability Pact educational initiatives in SEE. Dr Klemencic was a member of the Task Force on the Education and Youth and the Academic task force for Kosovo. She also acted as a coordinator of the Liaison group of Student Associations to the European Commission, was a member of the evaluation group of the Socrates Program, ESIB representative at a number of the Commission consultation meetings and to the Council of Europe Committee on Higher Education and Research.

In 2004, Dr Klemencic joined the team from EUA and UNMiK to conduct  external review of University of Mitrovica, in 2005, she was a member of the Salzburg Seminar Visiting Advisors Program at University of Zagreb and, in 2006, she acted as an External Evaluator of Austrian Science Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the navreme knowledge development and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research. During her undergraduate studies at University of Maribor in Slovenia, Dr Klemencic  acted as a national coordinator of the Slovenian Formal Debate Program and regional trainer with the Open Society Institute.