Current literature suggests that higher education‟s internationalisation is perceived as an indicator for the quality of higher education. Nonetheless few European-wide approaches have been developed to assess the quality of internationalisation. The current national accreditation systems do not explicitly include international and intercultural learning outcomes and a commonly agreed assessment methodology is lacking. Therefore, the European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education (ECA) decided to develop a European certificate for the assessment of internationalisation. In October 2012, a consortium of quality assurance agencies from eleven countries, the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) started the development of a Certificate for the Quality of Internationalisation (CeQuInt). This ECA project is funded by the EU and coordinated by the Accreditation Organisation of The Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). The overall aim of the project is to assess, reward and enhance internationalisation.
CeQuInt will provide programmes and institutions insight into their level and quality of internationalisation and provide them, where necessary, with recommendations for improvements. The project currently develops an assessment framework that focuses on improvement and excellence, and which builds on NVAO's experience with the assessment of internationalisation.
The assessment framework (i.e. methodology) will be used to assess the quality of internationalisation at either the level of a programme or an institution. The framework and methodology will be tested in a series of twelve pilot procedures, of which four at institutional level and eight at programme level. The experts taking part in the assessment panels will be trained before these procedures start. The pilot procedures will be used to test and evaluate the developed assessment framework from the perspective of both the experts as well as the assessed programmes and institutions. The feedback and results will be used to amend and finalise the assessment methodology.
A positive assessment by an assessment panel will lead to the award by ECA of the Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation. This certificate confirms that a programme or institution has successfully included a significant international and/or intercultural dimension in the purpose, function and delivery of its education. The Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation is intended to lead to a substantial improvement in the transparency and level of internationalisation.
HE institutions will be kept informed about the progress of the project through a newsletter, stakeholder meetings, workshops, conferences and publications. In addition, a platform will be developed to share good practices in the field of internationalisation as identified by assessment panels.
Since the start of the project in October 2012, the project partners have given specific attention to the further definition of assessment methodology, the identification of candidates for the pilot procedures, the specific roles and profiles of experts in the assessment panels and the commencement of dissemination activities. The immediate agreed actions include a stronger involvement of experts from the professional field in the assessment panels, the introduction of a core group of experts that will take part in several pilot procedures and the reporting of national and international dissemination activities. You can find more information here.

The 2012 Association of Quality Assurance Agencies of the Islamic World (QA-Islamic) Seminar and Roundtable Meeting was hosted by the Egyptian National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education (NAQAAE) in Cairo, Egypt from November 5 to 7, 2012.
The Seminar – themed Enhancing Exchangeability in Quality Assurance in the Islamic World’ – was attended by members of the QA-Islamic and representatives from the Egyptian universities. The seminar addressed the four subthemes: Regional Quality Framework, Mutual Confidence, Exchanges of Experts and Expertise and Rating vs. Ranking. The participants of the Seminar were updated with the current developments related to the subthemes in the member countries of the Association.
The Seminar was followed by the 2012 QA-Islamic Roundtable Meeting which discussed on the governance matters and strategic direction of QA-Islamic.
Internship Programme AQAAIW
The Association of Quality Assurance Agencies of the Islamic World (QA-Islamic) organized an Internship Programme for quality assurance officials of its member agencies from October 8 to 12, 2012. The programme was part of the Association‟s capacity building initiatives.
The five-day programme was hosted by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency in Kuala Lumpur in parallel with the ASEAN+3 Forum on Quality Assurance in Higher Education.
This programme was consciously designed so as to give the interns occasion to get connected with the Forum‟s participants from diverse countries and to benefit from the discussions that covered the fundamental principles of a quality framework.
Three officials from two QA-Islamic members, Azerbaijan and Indonesia took part in the programme and were joined by six other officials from Yemen and Namibia.

His Majesty King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa the King of Bahrain has issued a Decree No. (83) for 2012 organising the National Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority for Education and Training NAQQAET (formerly known as the Quality Assurance Authority for Education and Training QAAET).
The NAQQAET now comprises of five units. A new unit called ”National Qualification Framework (NQF) Unit” was established along with the present four units (Schools Review Unit; National Examinations Unit; Vocational Review Unit; and Higher Education Review Unit). The NQF Unit will run the operations of the National Qualification Framework and establish communications with national and international bodies that are involved with Education and Training Frameworks.
It is foreseen that the NQF will further enhance the Authority‟s main objectives in improving the quality and performance of education and training sectors within the Kingdom. The NQF emphasizes the value of qualifications by mapping those qualifications on the framework according to a set of educational quality standards that are on par with global standards.

ENQA has recently obtained funding for a LLP/Erasmus proposal. The two-year project started on 1 October and will end on 30 September 2014. The project, entitled “Transparency of European higher education through public quality assurance reports” (EQArep), aims at developing European standards for quality assurance reports.
The consortium of the project includes ENQA (as applicant and coordinator), the Swiss Center of Accreditation and Quality Assurance in HE (OAQ), the Irish Universities Quality Board (IUQB), the Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) and the Estonian Higher Education Quality Agency (EKKA).
The project will map the current publication practices, explore the different needs of stakeholders for transparent and comparable information, develop standards for different types of quality assurance reports in the EHEA and evaluate whether a European template for quality assurance reports is feasible.
The project will result in a recommendation to quality assurance agencies on the content and form of informative and approachable quality assurance reports. Thus the envisaged impact is a higher degree of comparability of quality assurance reports and consequently a better contribution of quality assurance to transparency of higher education at the European level.

The ASEAN Plus Three Forum on Quality Assurance in Higher Education, held in Kuala Lumpur from 10th to 11th October 2012 was organized by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). The forum themed - „Building Regional Confidence towards Harmonizing Higher Education of the ASEAN Plus Three Countries‟- was attended by the representatives of quality assurance agencies, institutions and ministries of higher education from the ASEAN Plus Three and ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN) member countries. The forum was also attended by MQA‟s quality partners as well as local participants from the higher education institutions.
The two-day program was officiated by the Honorable Minister of Higher Education Malaysia, Dato‟ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.
Professor Dr. Andrejs Rauhvargers, Secretary General of the Latvian Rectors‟ Conference and Chairman of the Bologna Follow Up Group delivered a keynote address on the theme of the forum. This was followed by four plenary sessions addressing the four subthemes of the forum: “Revisiting the Principles of Qualifications Framework System”, “Revisiting the Principles of External Quality Assurance Agency”, “Revisiting the Principles of External Quality Assurance Processes” and “Revisiting the Principles of Institutional Quality Assurance System”.
The forum also included a special session on the ASEAN-QA Project. It was continued with the 2012 AQAN Roundtable Meeting. Here you will find more information.

« A key element that we believe should be added to the work on how to effectively strengthen the social safety net and make more people feel happy with their lives is to promote lifelong learning. Improving and activating the system of lifelong education is needed not just to help people remain competitive and competent at the workplace but make their life more lively and meaningful.
Lifelong learning can be defined as self-motivated pursuit of knowledge and skills for either personal or professional reasons. Thus, it contributes to enhancing social inclusion, active citizenship and personal fulfillment beyond individual employability and competitiveness. Over the past decades, scientific and technological innovations have changed the public’s attitude toward learning, leading them to recognise that it is not confined to childhood or the classroom but goes on throughout life and in a diversity of circumstances. In terms of traditional brick and mortar schooling, Korea is one of the best-educated nations in the world. But it remains far lower than other major countries in the proportion of people who engage in self-directed learning throughout their lives.
According to a survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), nearly 40 per cent of Koreans aged 25-64 received university-level or higher education in 2009, compared to the OECD average of 30 per cent. But slightly over 30 per cent of Korean adults participated in various types of lifelong learning such as not-for-credit courses by universities, lessons at private institutes or community centres and online programmes in 2010. The ratio fell far short of the 2007 OECD average of 40.8 per cent. Source: Editorial Desk, The Korea Herald.

By Bassam Al-Shamori. SANA’A, Jan. 27 — A spokesperson for the Sana’a University Employees’ Syndicate, Mohammed Abdulqawi Al-Absi, declared a comprehensive strike on Sunday at several of Yemen’s government universities to protest the passing of a law that allows academics to be elected to senior positions at the university while preventing administrative staff from running for the positions.
Al-Absi told the Yemen Times that the syndicate agreed with Sana’a University employees on Saturday to instigate a strike.
As of Sunday, the strike was operating at four universities, Sana’a University, Damar University, Ibb University and Amran University. Read more...

By Robert Huesca. Taking an administrative leave in Benin for the past six months provided an eye-opening contrast to my first study-abroad experience, in Mexico City back in 1980. Of particular note was the insidious impact of new communication technologies on living and learning in another culture.
As a former director of the office of international programs at Trinity University, in San Antonio, I am particularly attuned to the issues that concern professionals in study abroad—ranging from cultural immersion to health and safety. All of those issues seem to have been transformed for good and for ill by advances in information and communication technology.
While in Benin, I lived in the town of Ouidah, population 90,000, on the Atlantic coast of this West African republic. I had signed up with a program called the Humanity Exchange, which organizes volunteer opportunities and French-language instruction. Read more...

By Justin Pope. After two strong years, college and university endowments lost ground slightly during the fiscal year ending last June 30, with their investments declining 0.3 percent on average, according to a new study.
U.S. stock markets have risen around 10 percent since then, and many global markets are also higher, so recent performance is likely stronger.
Endowments are the assets owned and invested by universities, who typically spend about 4 to 5 percent of their values annually to support things like financial aid, faculty salaries and other expenses — and then try to replenish the payouts through fundraising and investment returns. Read more...

By Whitney Burdette. Colleges and universities depend largely on donations, and if one estimate holds true, giving to higher education institutions is on track to exceed the watermark set before the 2009 recession.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education found in a survey that giving to colleges and universities grew by 5.5 percent in 2012. The survey also predicts additional growth of 5.8 percent in 2013, exceeding "the high watermark set just prior to the recession," according to CASE President John Lippincott.
"This is very good news," he said in a news release.
Donations to higher education institutions reached a record $31.6 billion in the 2007-2008 school year before dramatically declining the next year, thanks in part to the economic downturn. However, giving began to increase again in 2010, reaching $30.3 billion in the 2010-2011 academic year, according to the Voluntary Support of Education report issued by the Council for Aid to Education. Read more...