EQAR NEWSLETTER - JULY 2026

The Register Committee members gathered in Brussels on 25 and 26 of June for their second meeting of 2026. 

This occasion also marked the 50th meeting since the establishment of the Committee, which was cause for celebration as a meaningful milestone in EQAR’s continuous commitment to quality assurance of higher education.

The Register Committee also gave feedback on the preliminary “Analysis of Register Committee Decisions”, which will be published after the summer.

→ More about the Register Committee meeting

• DIGI-REQA
  DIGI-REQA activities progressed further this quarter, with EQAR, NVAO and the project team advancing the guidebook on digital tools to suort automatic recognition, currently under development. In parallel, EQAR is conducting a systematic analysis of DEQAR reports to assess how quality assurance agencies address recognition-related elements under ESG 1.4. EQAR also continues to support the integration of DEQAR data into the AR-go tool, reinforcing the digital infrastructure underpinning automatic recognition across the EHEA.
  → More about the DIGI-REQA project
   
• SIQA 
  EQAR is updating and expanding the Knowledge Base with the ultimate goal of enhancing the applicability and usefulness of the repository for monitoring the implementation of a range of Bologna process tools and commitments related to QA, including the key commitments of external QA in line with the ESG. For this purpose, EQAR envisions an update of the current sections, as well as introducing new topics such as QA of transnational education (TNE) and QA of micro credentials (MC).
  As a member of the SIQA Working Group on Cross-Border QA, EQAR participates in the sub-group that is working on the revision of the Key Considerations for CBQA in the EHEA. The revised version of the Key Considerations will be presented at the next meeting of the CBQA Working Group in September.
  → More about the SIQA project
   
• TPG-LRC Plus
  TPG-LRC Plus partners convened in Sèvres on 23 June 2026, in conjunction with the TPG B meeting, to review the state of play of roject deliverables, refine the work plan for upcoming publications, and align on strategic management and dissemination priorities. The consortium discussed progress across all work packages, including updates on the autumn ublic seminars and research outputs on automatic recognition, transnational education and alternative pathways, as well as next stepss for staff mobility and communication activities.
  → More about the TPG-LRC Plus project
   
• New project awarded: SQUAR-ED
  SQUAR-ED – Supporting Quality Assurance and Recognition of the European Degree – is a two-year project aiming at facilitating the rollout of the Joint European Degree Label (JEDL), together with our partners CIMEA and the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia. Building on DEQAR, we will develop the JEDL Repository, a trusted, user-friendly source of information on programmes awarded the label. Alongside this, the project will help contribute to making joint programmes eaier to showcase, understand, recognise and trust across borders; by combining technical infrastructure, quality assurance expertise, and poplicy development, SQUAR-ED will help lay the foundations of the ong-term success of the European Degree initiative.
  → More about the SQUAR-ED project

The EQAR Knowledge Base is an information resource maintained by EQAR, designed primarily to enhance transparency and provide detailed insight into how external quality assurance (EQA) is organised across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The Knowledge Base actively monitors the implementation of the EHEA commitment on QA, and feeds data into the sections dedicated to QA in the Bologna Process Implementation Report. EQAR is updating and expanding the Knowledge Base with the ultimate goal of enhancing the applicability and usefulness of the repository for monitoring the implementation of a range of Bologna process tools and commitments related to QA, including the key commitments of external QA in line with the ESG. For this purpose, EQAR envisions an update of the current sections, as well as introducing new topics such as QA of transnational education (TNE) and QA of micro credentials (MC). EQAR is inviting stakeholders to provide their feedback on the data model until 17 August.

More details are available in the following document: https://cloud.eqar.eu/s/rjFZceZTg6p5dHX.

With the end of June 2026, Stéphane Lauwick concludes his mandate as President of EQAR. 

While presenting himself as a candidate, he had described the EHEA as "the space to uphold the democratic values we all share in Higher Education”. He had also added that “EQAR has a bright future: in a day and age when students, their families and their prospective employers need to have the best information on the quality of Higher Education, the Register and DEQAR provide the most transparent and reliable source of information for all. A strong EQAR will be beneficial not only for our colleagues in Higher Education, but also for the general public”.

It is with heartfelt gratitude that we reach the end of Stéphane’s mandate, and we are looking forward to continuously build on the groundwork that it has laid.

Bjørn Stensaker was elected President of EQAR at the General Assembly held online on the 10th of March; his three-year mandate started on the 1^st of July.

Bjørn is succeeding Stéphane Lauwick, and he is the third President elected to guide EQAR and its activities.

Bjørn is a Full Professor of Higher Education at the Department of Education of the University of Oslo, where he also served as Vice-Rector Education between 2021 and 2025.

During the office-warming reception, Bjørn shared a reflection on the importance of upholding the role of institutions during these arguably challenging historical times, and reiterated his commitment to guiding EQAR along these lines.

We look forward to working with Bjørn to further implement EQAR’s vision – “a coherent quality assurance framework for the European Higher Education Area in which higher education institutions have the freedom to turn to a suitable EQAR-registered agency for their external quality assurance reviews, and in which qualifications are thus universally recognised”.

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