Join higher education institutions’ leadership, management, teaching and support staff; quality assurance agency staff; policy-makers and national authorities; students and world of work representatives in our workshop on the ESG as a tool for change. Join us to learn more about the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) directly from their authors; benefit from exchanges with peers on good practices; overcome challenges in translating the ESG into practice. More...

EQAR's 10th General Assembly was held in Amsterdam on 7 March, hosted by the Dutch EU Presidency, in conjunction with the BFUG meeting on 7-8 March. More...

The Ministers of the EHEA adopted the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes on 14-15 May 2015 in Yerevan. The purpose of the European Approach is to ease external quality assurance of joint programmes. In particular, it will:

• dismantle an important obstacle to the development of joint programmes by setting standards for these programmes that are based on the agreed tools of the EHEA, without applying additional national criteria, and
• facilitate integrated approaches to quality assurance of joint programmes that genuinely reflect and mirror their joint character.

European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes

It is now possible for higher education institutions providing a joint programme to select a suitable quality assurance agency from the list of EQAR-registered agencies. The agency will use the Standards and Procedure in the European Approach to carry out a single evaluation or accreditation of the entire joint programme. The result is to be accepted in all EHEA countries. More...

The Members' Dialogue brings together EQAR Governmental Members, stakeholder organisations, permanent observers and statutory bodies to discuss recent policy developments in quality assurance. More...

Through a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, the 2015 EQAF, entitled “Taking stock and looking forward”, combined presentations of current developments in quality assurance with discussions on research, policy and practice. The Forum provides an opportunity for participants to update their knowledge and extend their professional development. More...

The EQUIP project has published a Comparative analysis of the ESG 2015 and ESG 2005. This paper provides an overview of the changes in the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) as they were adopted by the Ministers responsible for higher education in 2015 in Yerevan compared to the ESG first published in 2005, including an outline of the changes in the context, scope, purposes and principles; a description of changes in the wording of the standards; and an analysis of the content of the related guidelines. More...

The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) 2015 were adopted by the Ministers responsible for higher education in the European Higher Education Area in May 2015. More...

ENQA’s contribution to the Bologna Process

• 2001-2003: collaboration in establishing a common framework of reference for quality assurance and working towards the establishment of the EHEA by 2010;
• 2003-2005: drafting the ESG in co-operation with its member agencies and the other members of the E4 Group (EUA, EURASHE and ESU). The ESG were adopted in Bergen in 2005;
• Consultative member of the BFUG since 2005;
• 2005-2008: active contribution to the establishment of the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) icon external link, together with its E4 partners. Publication of the E4 Group’s icon pdf Report to the London Conference of Ministers on a European Register of Quality Assurance Agencies. EQAR, the first legal entity emerging from the Bologna Process, was founded on 4 March 2008 by the E4 Group;
• Membership of the BFUG Working Group “European Higher Education in a Global Setting”;
• Organisation, within the framework of the BFUG work programme, of a Bologna seminar on “Transnational education (TNE) and the OECD-UNESCO- Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education” to be held in London on 1-2 December 2008. More...

Quality assurance agencies

Quality Procedures in the European higher education area and beyond – Internationalisation of quality assurance agencies: 4th ENQA Survey

The report presents a collection of current features of practice in international activities in external quality assurance. It reflects the priorities formulated by ENQA and ministers of higher education who adopted the Yerevan Communiqué (2015), and the ESG 2015, both of which emphasise mobility and internationalisation.
In addition, the present report identifies international activities that are supported by governments and maps the areas of potential risk, as well as benefits, in the internationalisation of external quality assurance. The report poses a question as to whether an international market of quality assurance services is emerging, and if so, how it should be developed.

A Toolkit for Quality Assurance Agencies

This Toolkit is the result of a project co-financed by the Erasmus Mundus Programme of the European Union and coordinated by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).
The project, called Quality Assurance of CrossBorder Higher Education (QACHE), aimed at enhancing the quality assurance of higher education provided across national borders. Download the Final report of the QACHE Project.
In the context of the QACHE project, cross-border higher education (CBHE) refers to any learning activity in which the students are based in a different country from the country in which the institution providing the education is located. This includes the cross-border mobility of study programmes and higher education providers, such as branch campuses overseas, collaborative partnerships in the form of joint-programmes, validation or franchising arrangements, and distance learning provision, but excludes international student mobility. More...