EASPA Annual Conference, Brussels, Belgium (21 May 2013)
The European Alliance for Subject-specific and Professional Accreditation and Quality Assurance (EASPA) is holding its Annual Conference on “Subject-based external QA: its contribution to quality development and mobility” in Brussels on 21 May 2013.
This annual forum aims to gather international experts and guests from the international higher education and quality assurance community to discuss all aspects of disciplinary quality assurance and accreditation and its impact on fostering academic and professional mobility on a European and global level.
Registration is open until 3 May 2013. To register or for more information please visit the website.
EASPA hosts an international conference on “Subject-based external QA: its contribution to quality development and mobility” on Tuesday, 21 May 2013 at the International Association Center (40, rue Washington), Brussels, Belgium.
High level representatives of several stakeholders will speak on various aspects of the topic. The newly elected President of INQAAHE, Ms. Carol Bobby, has confirmed her presentation.
The agenda can be downloaded here.
This annual forum is a high profile event where international experts and guests from the International Higher Education and Quality Assurance community will discuss all aspects of disciplinary quality assurance and accreditation and its impact on fostering academic and professional mobility on a European and global level.
Registration is now open! Please register here soon as possible as places are limited.
The conference will be followed by the annual General Assembly of EASPA.

By Alicia Mitchell. In January this year the eLearning Africa news service reported on the progress being made towards the impending Millennium Development Goal (MGD) deadline and highlighted the worrying trend of prioritising quantity over quality in efforts to reach the target of universal primary education by 2015. New eLearning technologies offer the tantalising potential to spread high-quality education across the developing world. This could be an answer to the problem, but it is never a simple case of ‘just add ICT’.
In his keynote speech at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2012, Michael Trucano, Senior ICT and Education Policy Specialist at the World Bank, noted the dangerous tendency of policy makers to “dump hardware in schools [and] hope for magic to happen”. Projects that just ‘dump and walk’ are not only wasters of time, money and resources, but are also disillusioning, leading to less inclination to further experiment with ICTs in education. Read more...

In the autumn of 2012, EUA launched the project “Promoting quality culture in higher education institutions” (PQC), in partnership with the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the University of Duisburg-Essen, the University of Lisbon and the University of Zagreb.
The project aims to provide capacity-building to quality managers at universities on how to build quality cultures, and to staff of quality assurance agencies on how they can support institutions in this process. The first in a series of three trainings for quality managers was held at the University of Lisbon from 8 to 10 April 2013. The training gathered 20 representatives of EUA member universities in charge of quality processes at their institution, whether at leadership or managerial level.
Through plenary sessions and group work, the participants explored questions such as: How to build effective communication structures for engaging staff and students in quality culture? How to use staff development as a means for enhancing quality? How to connect QA to the decision-making processes at all levels? How to avoid hindering creativity at the university through bureaucratic QA processes?
Two more trainings will take place in the framework of the PQC project in May and June. The participants have been selected through a Call for Participation earlier this year. For more information about the project, please visit the project website.

As QAA consults on a new way of assessing universities and colleges, Stephen Jackson says that a single review method will not lead to a one-size-fits-all approach.
The way we review universities and colleges in the UK has come under close scrutiny since the government published its 2011 white paper, Students at the Heart of the System, bringing to the fore the idea of more proportionate quality assurance in higher education. Currently, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is consulting on changing the way we review higher education in England and Northern Ireland. For the first time, we will apply the same method – Higher Education Review – to both universities and further education colleges. This move signals our confidence in colleges' delivery of higher education. Read more...

Le Cedefop indique, dans une Note d'information intitulée « Qualité: condition sine qua non de la confiance dans les certifications », qu'un consensus s'est instauré sur "la nécessité de synergies entre certifications, cadres de certifications et assurance qualité" pour garantir la confiance dans les certifications. Cette interaction doit porter sur la certification et viser à assurer la qualité des acquis de l’apprentissage, de l’évaluation et de la validation, des autorités certificatrices/compétentes et des normes. Les priorités de l’Europe: "faciliter la compréhension et la comparabilité transnationale des certifications et offrir davantage de passerelles entre les différents établissements d’enseignement/de formation et entre les différentes filières d’apprentissage".
Cedefop, Note d'information, mars 2013
Une certification ne peut avoir de valeur que si elle suscite la confiance. L’utilisation d’un certificat ou diplôme à des fins d’emploi ou d’apprentissage complémentaire dépend largement de ce qu’a appris l’individu qui a achevé le programme et réussi les examens qui s’y rattachent. Cette confiance repose sur des dispositifs d’assurance qualité systématiques. Les établissements d’éducation et de formation dépourvus de dispositifs d’assurance qualité risquent de se retrouver dans le lot des organismes délivrant de fausses «certifications». La confiance est également fondamentale pour la mise en œuvre des cadres de certifications en cours en Europe. Ces cadres visent à faciliter l’utilisation des certifications d’un établissement à l’autre ou d’un pays à l’autre. Cela exige de décrire les certifications en termes d’ acquis de l’apprentissage. Une assurance qualité systématique permet d’établir si le document présenté par un candidat est porteur d’une valeur réelle.

Partenaire du projet européen CeQuint (Certificate for Quality of Internationalisation), l’AERES a participé au deuxième comité de pilotage du projet, qui s’est tenu le 28 mars 2013, à Ljubljana (Slovénie).
L’objectif du projet est d’évaluer et de renforcer l'internationalisation des établissements d’enseignement supérieur et des programmes de formation dans l’espace européen de l’enseignement supérieur.
Le projet doit permettre d’élaborer une méthodologie dont le processus conduira, si l’évaluation est positive, à l'attribution d'un certificat européen pour la qualité de l'internationalisation de l’établissement ou du programme de formation évalué. Une évaluation pilote va être expérimentée en 2013 pour quatre établissements et huit programmes de formation en Europe, dont l’université de Reims et le diplôme d’ingénieur de l’Ecole des Ponts, pour la France.
Dans cette perspective, le comité de pilotage a essentiellement travaillé sur la méthodologie du certificat.
En savoir plus sur le projet CeQuint
Over the past 25 years, the international dimension of higher education (HE) has steadily gained importance. Internationalisation is a vital force of modern HE, but so far only a few approaches have been developed to assess its quality. This shortcoming should be alleviated by this ECA project in which als the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) and DAAD take part.
The overall aim of the project is to assess, reward and enhance internationalisation.
The project will develop an assessment framework (i.e. methodology) that can be used to assess the internationalisation of a programme or an institution and which, if completed successfully, can lead to the award of a European Certificate for Internationalisation. The Certificate is intended to confirm that a programme or an institution has successfully incorporated an international and intercultural dimension into the purpose, function and delivery of its education. The project is based on the consortium's commonly agreed framework for internationalisation and will focus on both enhancement and excellence.
The framework will be tested in a series of pilot procedures in all European regions in which expert panels will apply the methodology to assess programmes or institutions.
The knowledge gathered in the project will be exploited in workshops, conferences and publications. For further dissemination, the  project intends to deploy a platform for good practice in internationalisation.

New publication: Collection of selected contributions from the 7th European Quality Assurance Forum
The European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) has been organised by the E4 Group (ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE) since 2006. The 7th Forum, held at Tallinn University, Estonia, in November 2012 attracted around 400 participants, thus confirming the Forum’s role as the main annual discussion platform for all interested parties in the field of European quality assurance (QA). A collection of selected contributions from the Forum is now available in a new publication.
Entitled “How does quality assurance make a difference?” it includes some of the keynote presentations as well as some of the many excellent contributions that generated lively discussions in the parallel sessions. The Forum Steering Committee hopes that this publication will inspire those involved in QA in their daily work.
During the three-day event, the majority of the plenary and parallel sessions discussed the impact of external and internal QA on higher education policies and institutional realities. New developments in QA at institutional and national level were also explored within the sessions together with the increased international dimension of external QA (e.g. cross-border accreditation and recognition of joint programmes). The new online publication can be downloaded here.
The next European Quality Assurance Forum will take place at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, on 21-23 November 2013. The call for contributions in the form of papers and workshop proposals is currently open and can be accessed here. Meanwhile the Forum organisers are also looking for a university to host the ninth EQAF that will take place in November 2014. The call for expressions of interest can be downloaded here.

Dans une Note d'information intitulée « Qualité: condition sine qua non de la confiance dans les certifications », le CEDEFOP indique qu'une interaction systématique entre cadres de certifications et mécanismes d’assurance qualité est nécessaire pour garantir la confiance dans les certifications. Cette interaction doit porter avant tout sur la certification et viser à assurer la qualité des acquis de l’apprentissage, de l’évaluation, des autorités certificatrices/compétentes et des normes.
L’Europe se positionne en faveur d'un développement rapide des cadres fondés sur les acquis de l’apprentissage. Elle souhaite que soit facilitée la compréhension et la comparabilité transnationale des certifications et veut offrir davantage de passerelles entre les différents établissements d’enseignement/de formation et entre les différentes filières d’apprentissage. Consulter la Note d'information.

On 12-13 March, 2013 the Irish Presidency Conference was held in famous surroundings of Dublin Castle. The Conference was organized by the newly established Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and gathered over 150 participants from 35 European and other regions’ countries. The main goal of the conference was to study how qualification frameworks and quality assurance arrangements can best work together at national and European levels facilitating the overall reformation of education.
The main priority of the Irish Presidency  of the Council of EU is the provision of high quality education and training for all Europe’s citizens which is essential if Europe is to tackle its unemployment crisis, strengthen its economic growth and create sustainable jobs. 
Two days of intensive discussions of a wide range of issues were followed by important conclusions. One of the conclusions emphasized the need for the European Commission, the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) Advisory Group and the BFUG to look at ways of facilitating greater  dialogue between the main actors  in  VET and  HE on the topic of quality and qualifications frameworks. Providers in both sectors were  urged to make their quality assurance arrangements  mutually intelligible, share good practice in implementation of learning outcomes. The participants expressed concern on the disconnection between what employers required as skills  for employees and the obtained qualifications. More information and the complete conclusions can be accessed from the QQI website at www.qqi.ie.

The 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) has announced several high-ranking speakers to be present during the event on May 16th and 17th at the Global Headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy.
The 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) has announced several high-ranking speakers to be present during the event on May 16th and 17th at the Global Headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy. Figures such as the esteemed Prof. Dr. Rory McGreal and Prof. Dr. Fred Mulder, both UNESCO chairs for Open Educational Resources (OER), as well as Christian-Friedrich Lettmayer, Director of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), will contribute their experience to the conference. Their support of LINQ’s continuing mission to examine the intersections between learning innovations and quality will provide an excellent framework for the state-of-the-art research and project work collected through the LINQ call for papers and projects, ended on March 4th. For more information on specific registration requirements and other matters, please visit the conference website at www.learning-innovations.eu.