News 2014

The Register Committee convened in Rome on 28 and 29 November and admitted the following four new agencies

• A3ES - Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (Portugal)
• AQ Austria - Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria
• CAQA - Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance (Serbia)
• Unibasq - Agency for Quality of the Basque University System (Spain)

The Register Committee also decided to renew the registration of another four agencies:

• AAC-DEVA - Andalusian Agency of Knowledge, Department of Evaluation and Accreditation (Spain)
• ACSUG - Agency for Quality Assurance in the Galician University System (Spain)
• CTI - Engineering Degree Commission (France)
• IEP - Institutional Evaluation Programme

These agencies have demonstrated their substantial compliance with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) through an independent external review.

The final results of the RIQAA project (Recognising International Quality Assurance Activity in the EHEA) were presented and discussed at the RIQAA Final Conference and EQAR Members' Dialogue organised in Palermo (Italy).

The conference aimed to inform policy makers about the current level of recognition of quality assurance agency results and decisions and to enable higher education institutions to make an informed choice to work with internationally active quality assurance agencies adapted to their specific mission and profile.

More information about the event (presentations, project report, photos)

At its meeting on 22 and 23 May 2014 in Kaunas (Lithuania), the Register Committee admitted two quality assurance agencies to the Register:

• EAPAA – European Association for Public Administration Accreditation
• NOKUT – Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education

The Register Committee also decided to renew the registration of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance (ARACIS) and the Polish Accreditation Committee (PKA). Provisional registration was granted to the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC), following a merger of previously-registered FINHEEC with two evaluation bodies responsible for other education sectors.

The Register now features 32 agencies that have demonstrated their substantial compliance with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) through an independent external review.

The E4 Group (ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE), in cooperation with Education International (EI), BUSINESSEUROPE and EQAR have today (18 March) published a joint proposal for a revised version of the “Standards and Guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG)”.

The proposal seeks to make the ESG clearer, reflects the recent changes in the EHEA, makes a more explicit link to the learning and teaching process in the section on internal QA and defines the relationship of QA with other Bologna Process developments that have taken place since 2005 (including those relating to Qualifications Frameworks and learning outcomes).

Read more and download the proposal

The European Commission published its triennial Report on Progress in Quality Assurance in Higher Education, following up on the European Parliament and Council’s recommendation on quality assurance in higher education of 2006.

EQAR is pleased that the Commission will work with EU Member States to “encourage more quality assurance agencies to apply for EQAR registration; and to allow foreign EQAR-registered agencies to operate in their HE systems”, consistently with the corresponding commitment made by Ministers of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in their Bucharest Communiqué (2012). Opening higher education institutions the possibility to choose a quality assurance agency that best suits their mission and profile may help institutions to have an external evaluation, audit or accreditation that best benefits its own internal quality assurance activities.

As the report sets out, many countries in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) yet have to take steps to implement the Bucharest Communiqué commitment. Through its current project “Recognising International Quality Assurance Activity” (2013/14), co-funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, EQAR aims to contribute to advancing policy developments in that respect.

The project analyses both the existing national frameworks for enabling higher education institutions to work with foreign EQAR-registered quality assurance agencies, as well as experiences, challenges and opportunities observed by quality assurance agencies and higher education institutions in accreditation, evaluation and audit across borders.

The Report further calls to “minimise bureaucracy” in external quality assurance of joint programmes, so as to facilitate their development and growth. While ministers have already committed to “recognise quality assurance decisions of EQAR-registered agencies on joint and double degree programmes” (Bucharest Communiqué), this is not a reality yet in all EHEA countries. EQAR has been participating in discussions on a set of European principles for external quality assurance of joint programmes, as a way to promote the principle of a single review adopted in the Bucharest Communiqué.

EQAR has further been actively participating in the revision of the European Standards and Guidelines for Higher Education (ESG). By enhancing the clarity and applicability of the ESG, including clear articulation with other relevant Bologna Process tools such as qualifications frameworks, the revised ESG is expected to enhance the international trust in a coherent European framework for QA and, thus, to contribute to the recognition of quality assurance agencies' results and decisions across the EHEA.

Further information:
Press Release European Commission