The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Dr. Fabrizio Trifiro’, Manager International, QAA IQA Workshop: Quality in Higher Education May 2015, Near East University- Nicosia, North Cyprus 1

Outline Key milestones ENQA today The European Standards and Guidelines Some current priorities 2

ENQA – Key milestones 2000: established as the European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Berlin Communiqué 2003 called upon ENQA, in co-operation with the EUA, EURASHE and ESU (the E4 Group) to develop an agreed set of standards, procedures and guidelines on quality assurance, to explore ways of ensuring an adequate peer review system for quality assurance agencies 2004: transformed into the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education 2005 Bergen Ministerial conference: adopted the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) (developed with E4 partners) endorsed the proposal to create a European register of QA agencies accepted ENQA as consultative member in the Bologna follow-up Group 2008 the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) was established, with the E4 as founders 3

ENQA – Today A membership association for QA agencies in the EHEA 48 Full Members in 27 EHEA countries (at least 2 years of operation, externally assessed compliance with ESG) 47 Affiliates in Europe, East Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas Composed of three bodies: General Assembly: main decision-making body (all members) Board: executive body (1 president, 2 vice-presidents, 4- 6 members) Secretariat (Brussels): manages the day-tod-day operation (4 employees) 4

ENQA – Mission (Strategic Plan ) drive the development of quality assurance by representing agencies internationally and supporting them nationally provide agencies with comprehensive services and networking opportunities promote the enhancement of quality and the development of a quality culture in higher education 5

ENQA – Activities Representing its members in political decision-making processes at European and international level consultative member of the BFUG Contributing to further development of QA processes and systems in the EHEA, functioning as a think-tank internal working groups, e.g. impact of QA, QA of life-long learning ad hoc expert group, e.g. QA of joint programmes Disseminating and sharing information and good practice, through workshops, conferences, training, projects and reports EQAF / QACHE Project / Survey of agencies’ international activities / Enhancing the transparency function of QA reports Coordination of external reviews of QAAs against the ESG every 5 years, by teams of peers trained by ENQA 6

European Standards and Guidelines Set a common framework for internal and external QA across the EHEA Part I: outlines standards for internal QA of HEIs Part II: outlines standards for the external QA of HEIs Part III: outlines standards for the external QA of agencies Introduced a peer-review system for QA agencies Compliance with the ESG is used for full ENQA membership… as well as for being listed in EQAR 7

European Standards and Guidelines: Revision Bucharest Ministerial Communiqué mandated the E4, in cooperation with Education International, BUSINESSEUROPE and EQAR, to revise ESG with a view ‘to improve their clarity, applicability and usefulness, including their scope’. The revised ESG have been adopted at the 2015 Bologna ministerial conference in Yerevan clearer and better structured adopt a more student-centred approach more explicit links to qualifications frameworks 8

Relationship between ENQA and EQAR Two separate and independent associations: ENQA is an umbrella organisation for QA agencies EQAR is an information tool on trustworthy agencies founded by the E4 Group to provide clear and reliable information on legitimate QA agencies operating in Europe membership open to social partners and supporting governments provide a means for HEIs to choose agencies from the Register which meets their needs and profile (Council of the EU 2006) ENQA is a member of the EQAR executive Board and elects 2 members to the Registry Committee ENQA’s review decisions are used by EQAR as prima facie evidence of compliance with ESG 9

Some focus areas for 2015/16 Implementation of the revised ESG Development and revision of the ENQA reviews (to accommodate diversity) Quality assurance of cross-border higher education (QACHE Project) Internationalisation of QA 10

Thank you!