EQAR NEWSLETTER - MARCH 2026

Bjørn Stensaker to succeed Stéphane Lauwick as EQAR President

We are pleased to announce that Bjørn Stensaker was elected President of EQAR at the online General Assembly on 10 March. Bjørn will succeed Stéphane Lauwick, who will finish his term at the end of June.

Bjørn Stensaker is a well-known name in higher education circles and academia, having published widely in a range of international journals and book series. His areas of expertise in higher education range from quality assurance and evaluation, governance & leadership, to internationalisation and globalisation.

Bjørn is currently a full professor of higher education studies at the University of Oslo. He is a political scientist by training, with a PhD from the University of Twente in the Netherlands on organisational transformations in higher education.

He is considered as one of the leading experts in the world on quality assurance and the evaluation of higher education.

As a reaction to the election result and his future role, Bjørn remarked the following: “I am very honoured to have been selected as the next EQAR president, and I look forward to serving EQAR in the period 2026-2029. Quality assurance continues to be an instrument of vital importance for the functioning of higher education – inside the individual higher education institution, for the national higher education system, and at the European level.."

⇒ Read the full news-item

Register Committee - spring meeting

During the half-day meeting, the Register Committee discussed and took note of various change reports, approved several eligibility applications and approved the following application for renewal of registration:

UKÄ - Swedish Higher Education Authority
UKÄ reports in DEQAR

The Register Committee also gave feedback on the preliminary and soon to be published “Analysis of Register Committee Decisions”.

⇒ More about the Register Committee meeting

Job opportunity: Executive Officer

EQAR is looking for someone with a heart for education and its quality, to complement our dynamic and international team.

Main responsibilities:

Operational management and administrative support
Internal communication
External communication
Event organisation

Ideal profile (experience and skills):

Minimum of two years of professional experience in office management and administrative support.
Language: excellent, native-level command of written and spoken English and a working knowledge of French and/or Dutch.
Strong proficiency in standard office applications (e.g. Microsoft Office and similar) is required. Proficiency in WordPress website management and social media platforms would be an asset.
Structured, team-oriented, strong sense of personal responsibility and autonomy and a hands-on approach.

⇒ Check out the full job description, what we offer and how to apply

General Assembly update

EQAR members convened online in the afternoon of 10 March, for their 26th General Assembly (GA). Apart from the election of a President (see above), members adopted the accounts 2025, the budget 2027 and the Workplan 2026-2027. The GA also confirmed Board members, took note of the updates, the Annual Report and the Progress Report on the Work Plan 2025/26.

⇒ More about the General Assembly

The Annual Report 2025 has been published on our website. Last year was a solid and productive year with new activities (new projects), quinquennial activities (EQAR’s Self-Evaluation), our core (Register Committee) meetings, our statutory meetings (GA and Board), an in-person Members’ Dialogue and good financial results.

⇒ Check out our Annual Report for a complete overview of our activities and accomplishments, including key statistics and financial statements

Annelies Traas leaving EQAR

After more than 16 years, Annelies Traas is leaving EQAR in in pursuance of new professional experiences.

Annelies joined the Secretariat in 2009, one year after EQAR’s foundation. At that time, the Secretariat consisted solely of Colin Tück, with nine quality assurance agencies listed on the Register and EQAR boasting 26 governmental members. Decisions on applications were not yet published in full (only from 2013), there was no President (from 2017) and DEQAR was still nine years away from being launched.

During her tenure Annelies worked with 13 different colleagues at the Secretariat, 39 Register Committee members, five Register Committee Chairs, 23 Board members, not to mention countless governmental members, observers, members of the Appeals Committee and other stakeholder and agency colleagues.

However, those numbers, although impressive, fail to capture what Annelies meant for EQAR and especially for its Secretariat. Every office has to have that one person who keeps the spirits high, the team connected and everyone looking at their activities and tasks as a part of the bigger picture.

There is no doubt that for EQAR, that was always Annelies, in her different roles of Executive Officer, Communications Officer, or Acting Head of the Secretariat. While we are thrilled for her new adventure, we are sad to lose someone who was always the backbone of the EQAR Secretariat, a brilliant colleague and an even better friend.

The EQAR Secretariat wishes Annelies all the best in her future professional and personal life!

Newcomers webinar

After the success of last year’s “first edition” of the event, we organised another Newcomers Webinar in February. Targeted at newly or recently appointed representatives, we had the pleasure of welcoming 11 of our governmental members.

It was an opportunity for them to get to know EQAR and for us to get to know our new delegates just in time for the General Assembly.

⇒ More about the webinar, including the presentation

Invitation to a public seminar on automatic recognition

We are delighted to share an invitation to join the seminar “Automatic Recognition from policy to practice: mapping progress and exploring future developments”, that will be held on 16 April 2026, from 9:30 to 11:30 (CEST).

Don’t miss out on this event, organised in the framework of the TPG-LRC Plus project (in which EQAR is project partner), and the opportunity to:

Gain first-hand updates from the latest European and international policy developments in the field of qualifications recognition.
Discover experiences from higher education institutions in EHEA countries.
Explore the most recent tools, databases, and initiatives at international and national level.

⇒ Registration link