EQAR NEWSLETTER - JUNE 2024

Aleksandar Šušnjar to be the new EQAR Director

We are very pleased to announce that Aleksandar Šušnjar will be the new director of EQAR, as of 9 September 2024. Aleksandar is currently Head of Unit within the Centre for Quality Assurance and Enhancement of the University of Rijeka and has been an esteemed member of the EQAR Register Committee since 2021.

Aleksandar is also the YUFE (European Universities Alliance) Institutional Coordinator, where, for the last year, he coordinated one of the European degree pilot projects (FOCI). Since 2019, he has also coordinated the work of all YUFE staff at the University of Rijeka and also facilitated engagement of other university staff members and faculty with the YUFE initiative.

Aleksandar has thus ample experience in higher education and quality assurance, ranging from facilitating automatic recognition, developing joint programmes and supporting the accreditation process, planning and conducting internal quality audits to piloting the European degree concept.

“Ever since I first got involved in higher education quality assurance and European policies on higher education, I considered EQAR as an organisation with a special position in the European Higher Education Area and in the landscape of European higher education in general. Its role in fostering trust and transparency among diverse higher education systems is indispensable and I am very much looking forward to becoming a part of the EQAR team that continuously works on this. Making EQAR’s vision of a coherent quality assurance framework for the European Higher Education Area a reality is something worth striving for.” says Aleksandar.

“I am thrilled that Aleksandar will be our new director”, says Annelies Traas, current Acting Head of the Secretariat. “I have known him for a number of years now, in his capacity as Register Committee member, and I have found Aleksandar to be a very dedicated, knowledgeable and perceptive person. He doesn’t shy away from hard work and, what’s more, is someone with integrity. My current role in EQAR was always meant to be temporary, trying to keep the boat afloat and steering it into calmer waters as it were, and I will be very pleased to pass the “paddle” to Aleksandar. EQAR will be in very capable hands with him at the helm!” Annelies added.

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Register Committee Decisions

The Register Committee convened in the Netherlands on 3-4 April, hosted by the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, and approved the following applications for renewal of registration on the Register.

CYQAA - The Cyprus Agency of Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education
CYQAA reports in DEQAR
IEP – Institutional Evaluation Programme
IEP reports in DEQAR
PKA – Polish Accreditation Committee
PKA reports in DEQAR
Unibasq – Agency for Quality of the Basque University System
Unibasq reports in DEQAR

The Register Committee also considered several substantive change reports, eligibility applications and discussed and provided feedback on various internal processes. The next Register Committee meeting will take place on 1-2 July 2024.

Tirana Ministerial Conference

On 29-30 May 2024, European ministers of higher education met in Tirana to take stock of the development of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and to agree on priorities for the coming years.

It was also the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Bologna Process. Although the Bologna Process has been a huge success in many ways (a crucial one being the precursor of EQAR), there are key areas where commitments have not been fully realised by all EHEA systems.

EQAR President Stéphane Lauwick therefore called upon ministers to fulfill the Key Commitment on Quality Assurance, to dismantle remaining obstacles in cross-border recognition, to reaffirm the automatic recognition of qualifications as a fundamental aim of the Bologna Process and to promote the use of DEQAR as well as encourage publication of external quality assurance reports in DEQAR.

In the Tirana Communiqué EHEA ministers reaffirmed the three key commitments to be preconditions for the successful development and innovation of the EHEA and also committed to “promote the use of QA and transparency tools such as DEQAR.” EHEA ministers also adopted the Statements on Fundamental Values, one of which being the “participation of students and staff in higher education governance”. Furthermore, EHEA ministers adopted the Rules of Procedures for the European Higher Education Area.

Another relevant point for EQAR in the Communiqué is the ESG revision; ministers “invited the authors of the ESG to propose a revised version by 2026 to the BFUG, to be adopted at the 2027 Ministerial conference, as well as an adjustment, where required, of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes”.

EQAR's participation in the EHEA Ministerial Conference was also an excellent opportunity to talk to our members, stakeholders and other colleagues.

In EQAR's statement to the Tirana EHEA Ministerial Conference, and in line with its public interest mission to support the development of the EHEA, EQAR commits to:

Contribute to the planned revision of the ESG.
Encourage EHEA governments to use EQAR registration as a basis for the recognition of external quality assurance results.
Continue our active contribution to the EHEA working structures, in particular to monitoring the implementation of quality assurance commitments and supporting EHEA governments in creating quality assurance systems in line with the ESG.
Continue providing expertise and support in the domain of cross-border quality assurance and the use of the European Approach for quality assurance of Joint Programmes.
Continuing our endeavours to make external quality assurance results accessible and understandable for everyone, with the Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR) being the forefront of these efforts.
Support the connectivity of DEQAR with other initiatives, databases and tools in order to achieve more efficient interoperable workflows in the EHEA that facilitate automatic recognition and the issuing of digital credentials.

⇒ Read the full statement to the Tirana EHEA Ministerial Conference 2024 “Committing to & advancing the European Quality Assurance Framework”

⇒ Read the Communiqué (including the Fundamental Values)

EQAR Statement on the proposed Council Recommendation - Towards a more agile and forward-looking system of quality assurance

The European Commission adopted a European degree package on 27 March 2024, consisting of three initiatives, all aimed at advancing transnational cooperation between higher education institutions. EQAR’s statement, of which a summary below, is a reaction on the second initiative; the proposed Council Recommendation on a European quality Assurance and Recognition System in higher Education.

1. Implementation of EU and Bologna Process tools

EQAR welcomes the proposal tabled by the European Commission for a Council Recommendation on a European Quality Assurance and Recognition System in Higher Education. This proposal paves the way for a more agile and future-oriented system of accreditation and quality assurance, offering an opportunity for EU member states to follow the EU recommendations and to fulfil their EHEA commitments through the full implementation of Bologna Process tools that have already been agreed to in relation to QA and recognition.

2. EQAR's indispensable role in ensuring ESG compliance

EQAR notes with satisfaction that its work is acknowledged as an indispensable contribution to the realisation of the European Education Area and to further the improvement of the transparency of higher education provisions through safeguarding quality assurance.

3. Support of the further development of DEQAR as a trustworthy source of information

EQAR welcomes the intent of the Commission to support the further development of DEQAR* and echoes the call to Member States to encourage the publication of external quality assurance reports in the DEQAR database “to improve the transnational transparency of the quality of higher education provision“.

*The Commission intends to support the further development of the Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR), managed by EQAR, building on good practice by recognition information centres that use it for automatic recognition.

4. Building the foundations towards a European Degree

European university alliances and other consortia and groups of higher educations institutions, who are at the forefront of transnational cooperation often face multiple obstacles when developing a joint education provision. Obstacles such as multiple or diverging administrative procedures, colliding criteria and different accreditation periods in the EHEA may lead to uncertainties for the higher education institutions and potentially make the planning and organisation of joint programmes and their quality assurance, particularly challenging.

EQAR continues to strongly advocate the use of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes by the European Alliances and/or any other consortia/HEIs working on establishing joint programmes. The European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes was approved by ministers in 2015 and remains the best suited methodology to quality assure joint programmes. It is based on the ESGs and the principle that quality assurance should respond to the diversity of higher education systems, institutions, programmes and students.

⇒ Read the full statement

EQAR General Assembly

EQAR members convened in Brussels in the afternoon of 12 April for the 21st General Assembly (GA), organised in conjunction with the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) meeting which was held on 11-12 April. The GA was graciously hosted by the Belgian Ministries of Education, in the framework of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

After welcome words by Anne Verhaegen, Secretary General of the Department Education and Training (Belgium, Flemish Community) and EQAR President Stéphane Lauwick, there was a thematic session on the recent expansion of DEQAR, featuring micro–credentials and other providers.

Apart from the yearly recurring agenda items such as the accounts, the budget, the plan of work and the annual report, there was the adoption of the Strategy 2024-2028 and an explanatory statement by the Board of the latest developments within the EQAR Secretariat.

⇒ Check out the Annual Report 2023
⇒ Read the Strategy 2024-2028
⇒ More about the General Assembly (including confirmation of the EQAR Board members)

EU Public Consultation

The European Commission is currently conducting an interim evaluation of the progress in putting in place and developing the European Education Area (EEA). The evaluation involves a number of consultations to gather feedback of a variety of stakeholders.

This Public Consultation welcomes input from all individuals and organisations with insights on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, and EU added value of the EEA. Every contribution is crucial at this stage of the evaluation to shape the future development of the EEA.

The consultation will be open until 27 June and can be accessed via this link.