Background and purposes of external reviews of QA agencies: ENQA membership, national purposes Tibor Szanto Hungarian Accreditation Committee ENQA Workshop - Paris, July 2008

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto2 Overview I. Historical background II. Purposes of reviews III. Questions

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto3 Who will guard the guardians? Plato, Republic – on the ideal state guards will guard themselves it would be absurd that a guardian should need a guard (403e) Juvenal, Satire VI – on men and women guards cannot be trusted I. enforcing moral behaviour ~ morality of the enforcers

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto4 Relevance of the question for external QA: trust in agency activities ensuring the quality of QA agencies I.

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto5 Some steps in external QA CHEA recognition of agencies, 1998 INQAAHE conference, Chile 1999 quality label Guidelines for Good Practice 2003 etc ENQA workshop, Sitges 2003 ESG, Bergen 2005 Agency evaluations I.

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto6 Evaluations of Agencies UGC (HK): 99 HAC (H) : AR (D) : 01 EUA (EU) : …and many more I. MSA (US): 90 HEQC (UK): 93 NCA (US): AAU (NZ): 97, 01 EVC (DK): 98 OCGS (Can): 99

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto7 Reasons and goals of evaluation Evaluating past activities Planning future activities System level considerations Second review (follow-up of previous eval.) Meeting external expectations II. Cycle ended Defined as QA element of agency: ESG new!

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto8 ESG reference (second edition, 2007) Accountability procedures (Standard for agencies) Agencies should have in place procedures for their own accountability. [G] A mandatory cyclical external review of the agencys activities at least once every five years. II.

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto9 Types of reviews - as to organisation National review (default) independent, transparent, robust N.B. national = organisation of review review team is international in most cases! ENQA co-ordinated review where a national review would not be appropriate II.

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto10 Related ENQA documents Guidelines for national reviews of ENQA member agencies Briefing pack for review panel members of ENQA co-ordinated reviews both to be discussed during workshop II.

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto11 Types of agency reviews – as to general purpose Agency agenda National (system) agenda ENQA membership EQAR listing Purpose shift: internal external? III.

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto12 Questions HEI evaluations: Accountability Improvement? Agency evaluations: Improvement Accountability? Standards: reference points norms? Can agencies be trusted? III.

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto13 The use of agency evaluations or how many guardian levels we need? HEIs III. Agencies Agency reviewers Reviewing the agency reviewers???

10 July, 2008ENQA Workshop - Paris, T. Szanto14 Who should guard the guardians? ? III.

Thank you for your attention!