EUA welcomes launch of European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education

 

The new register, which is one of the milestones of the Bologna process reforms, aims to provide clear and objective information about trustworthy quality assurance agencies that are working in Europe. It has been established by the  “E4 Group” -  comprising EUA, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the European Students Union (ESU), and the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE) – under the mandate of  Education Ministers from the 46 countries taking part in the Bologna process.

The EQAR also aims to help improve the quality of European higher education and to promote greater student mobility by increasing trust between higher education institutions. Whilst most European countries already have quality assurance agencies of one sort or another, the EQAR will serve as an instrument to improve the quality of those national quality assurance agencies and allow higher education institutions to choose between different agencies, if that is compatible with national arrangements.

Under the Bologna process reforms, there has been a rapid development across Europe of national quality assurance systems, and as a result, common reference points have been defined at European level to improve the consistency of quality assurance schemes.

Inclusion on the EQAR, which is voluntary, will be based on compliance with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance adopted by European Education Ministers in 2005. A Committee – composed of independent experts nominated by the E4 Group, BusinessEurope, Education International, together with five government observers – will be responsible for admissions to the register. The register will be accepting applications from the summer of 2008 and information will be publicly accessible through a web-based tool.

The EQAR was officially launched by the heads of the E4 Group at a special launch meeting in Brussels on the 4^th March.  During the meeting, EUA Secretary General Lesley Wilson has been appointed as the first President of the EQAR executive board. She stressed that the register had been one of the major achievements of the Bologna process, highlighting the success of the unique stakeholder approach. The register would also be an important tool in helping to make European higher education more competitive and attractive on a global scale, an argument also shared by Ján Figel', European Commissioner responsible for education, youth and culture.

"The Register is an important element in the chain of information tools that are needed to make European higher education more transparent and more attractive for our own citizens and for students and scholars from other continents," he said whilst speaking at the event.

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Published on: Thursday, 20 March 2008 15:50