Carsten Q. Schneider is the interim President and Rector of CEU, overseeing the university’s academic mission and long-term strategy. He works to strengthen CEU’s role as a hub for research, teaching, and international collaboration.

Schneider joined CEU in 2004 as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science. He was promoted to associate professor in 2008 and full professor in 2015. From 2014 to 2017, he served as department head. Following this, he was program director for the Master of Arts in Political Science in 2021 and 2022.

Since 2020, Schneider has played a key role at CIVICA: The European University of Social Sciences, leading research-focused work packages and serving as Co-Chair of the Permanent Design Team. Before becoming the interim President and Rector at CEU, he served as the Pro-Rector for External Relations from 2022 to 2025.

His research and teaching interests focus on the study of political regime change processes in different world regions and on comparative social science methodology, especially set‐theoretic methods. He is the author of three books on set-theoretic methods and QCA published with Cambridge University Press in 2012, 2021, and 2024, and on the Consolidation of Democracy in Europe and Latin America, with Routledge, in 2009.

His articles have appeared, among others, in Comparative Political Studies, Democratization, European Journal of Political Research, Political Analysis, Political Research Quarterly, and Sociological Methods and Research.