EQAR Newsletter - January 2018

Seminar: Implementation of the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes, 1/2 March 2018 | EQUIP Breakfast Briefing, 27 February 2018 | EQUIP Webinar, 28 February 2018 | Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR) | European Approach and Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees


Seminar: Implementation of the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes

1/2 March 2018, Brussels

The European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes was adopted at the Bologna Process Ministerial Conference in Yerevan (May 2015) as a step towards minimising barriers in external quality assurance of joint programmes. However, to date, only a few countries have fully integrated the European Approach into their accreditation procedures, and several difficulties in implementing the Approach persist.

Within the framework of the “Facilitating implementation of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes (ImpEA)” project, ENQA, ECA, EQAR and PKA are co-organising an informational and interactive fee-free event for all stakeholders interested in learning how the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes may be implemented with greater ease. The event will build on previous activities pertaining to this topic and will present the results of the ImpEA project survey, in which implementation obstacles will be identified (for higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies: click here to participate in the survey).

Programme, Registration and Practical Information


EQUIP Breakfast Briefing & Webinar

27 February 2018, 8:30 - 10:30, Brussels (breakfast briefing)

28 February 2018, 14:00 - 15:00 CET (webinar)

Over the past two years, the EQUIP (‘Enhancing Quality through Innovative Policy and Practice’) partners have conducted a series of activities to support quality assurance (QA) stakeholders in meeting the expectations of the ESG 2015, and explore how to tackle the most common challenges in internal and external quality assurance and at the policy level. We are pleased to invite you to the two EQUIP final events:

A Breakfast Briefing will take place at the Fondation Universitaire,  Rue d’Egmont 11, 1000 Brussels, on Tuesday 27 February 2018 from 8:30 to 10:30.

The purpose of this event – in the format of a Breakfast Meeting — is to present the study ‘Enhancing quality: from policy to practice’, to introduce policy recommendations as well as to discuss the findings of the project.

We welcome you to participate at the meeting and we would be glad to share and exchange opinions about the main aspects of the study with you. Please kindly confirm your attendance through this link.

The outcomes of the EQUIP project will also be presented in a Webinar on Wednesday 28 February 2018, at 14:00 to 15:00 CET.

This webinar will present some of the results of this work, with input and reactions from a panel of higher education stakeholders. Topics to be covered will include the diversity of external contexts and legal frameworks, institutional responsibility for QA, and communicating about QA. During the webinar, participants will also have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion and ask questions.

To find out more and register, please click here. The deadline for registration is 26 February 2018 and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis (up to a maximum of 500 participants).

Participation is both events is free of charge and open to all interested parties.

The full results of the EQUIP project will be available in a report to be published at the end of February. Further information about EQUIP and resources from the project, including other publications and recordings of previous webinars, can be found on the EQUIP website.


Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR)

The Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR) will not only allow users to identify whether a higher education institution or its programmes have been subject to external quality assurance in line with the ESG, by an EQAR-registered agency, but will also give access to the corresponding quality assurance reports.

The first event of the DEQAR project was a (very well attended) webinar about the technical specifications of the database and the possible methods for the data delivery.

The next event of the project will be the DEQAR data collection and back-end workshop, co-organised by the German Rectors Conference (HRK) and the German Accreditation Council (GAC). At the workshop, we will present the DEQAR web interface and to exchange views and share experience on the initial sample data collection by the agencies. All EQAR registered quality assurance agencies are welcome to attend the workshop.

The first public preview of the database will be available in May 2018 on the new EQAR website, which is currently in the final phase of development.

Read more about the DEQAR project


European Approach and Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees

International joint study programmes are considered a hallmark of European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and their promotion is an objective of both the Bologna Process and the European Union's Erasmus+ programme. The European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes (adopted by European ministers of higher education in 2015) aims to reduce the bureaucratic burden sometimes caused by parallel national QA procedures. To this end, the European Approach provides a framework for a single, integrated external quality assurance procedure of the whole joint programme, based only on the agreed EHEA frameworks (e.g. ESG and QF-EHEA).

Some uncertainty, however, remained whether a joint external quality assurance procedure, based on the European Approach, was fully accepted to fulfil the accreditation requirements formulated for Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees. Within the most recent call for Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree proposals, this was fortunately clarified: if the higher education institution is subject to compulsory accreditation at programme level, this can be accomplished in the form of a single accreditation procedure based on the European Approach, provided the national legal framework permits this.

The call for proposals is still open until 15 February 2018.


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