Representatives of ACQAHE attended the Webinar hosted by the European University Association (EUA) and EURASHE (European Association of Institutions in Higher Education) on the 18th of September on the topic “Quality Assurance Fit for the future”.
The Webinar presented the results based on the research published in the joint paper by EUA and EURASHE and discussed the potential implications of these preliminary findings. The main focus of the research was on the perception of quality assurance by higher education institutions and whether the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) are fit for purpose. It also drew some comparisons with the viewpoints of QA agencies, Higher Education ministries and students in the European Higher Education Area.
The discussion was hosted by: Mr. Lewis Purser, Director of Learning, Teaching and Academic Affairs, Irish Universities Association, Mrs. Cecilia Biaggi, Policy and Project Officer, EUA and Mr. Jakub Grodecki, Policy and Project Manager, EURASHE, while at the same time more than 300 participants who attended this webinar posted and voted on interesting questions for discussion.
The presented research has shown that the perception of the ESG depends highly on the maturity of the systems, both within institutions and on the system level. On the other hand, most of the participants agreed that the external quality assurance framework needs to consider innovation and new developments. Key points of the research and discussion were oriented on the idea of creating less demanding and less bureaucratic external quality assurance processes, leading to the enchantment-oriented use of ESG among HEIs.
Bearing in mind, that most of the evaluated stakeholders in the process of QA stated that they would like for ESG to provide more guidance, this topic will be further discussed at the Quality Assurance Forum in November this year, in Portugal.
Additionally, insights and results of this research will represent the solid baseline for the next Ministerial conference to be held in Tirana, Albania in 2024.
For further details on the research, visit: