The document discusses the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) and its role in promoting transparency, trust, and recognition in the European Higher Education Area. EQAR maintains a register of quality assurance agencies that comply with the European Standards and Guidelines. It aims to facilitate automatic recognition of qualifications by 2020 by establishing common quality assurance standards. The document proposes creating an EQAR database of higher education institution quality assurance reports to help identify whether institutions underwent external review. A survey will gather input from recognition centers on the potential database's design and functionality.

1. European Quality Assurance
Register for Higher Education
EQAR's function in the EHEA &
possible tools to facilitate recognition
ENIC-NARIC Networks Annual Meeting
20 June 2016, Amsterdam
Colin Tück

2. EHEA framework for
quality assurance
 European Standards and
Guidelines (ESG)
 Modernised and improved 2015
version
 Common ground for QA in
Europe
 European Quality Assurance
Register (EQAR)
 Agencies that comply
substantially with the ESG – at
home and abroad
 Processes for substantive
changes and complaints
 43 registered QAAs
 Governmental members
without registered agency

3. European Quality Assurance Register
for Higher Education (EQAR)
 Established by E4 Group (ENQA, ESU,
EUA, EURASHE) at Ministers' request,
jointly governed by stakeholders and
governments
 Non-profit and independent, acting in
the public interest
 Mission:
 Transparency and trust
 Recognition
 Confidence in EHEA
 Responsibility: manage register of
QAAs that comply with the ESG
Stakeholder
organisations
Governments
Observers
Register Committee
Independent QA experts,
nominated by stakeholders
approves

4. EQAR in practice
Registration based on external review of agency
Annual updates on reviews and countries
Substantive change reports
Third-party complaints
Periodic renewal every 5 years

5. Yerevan Communiqué
(2015)
 “By 2020 we are determined to achieve an EHEA
[European Higher Education Area] where our common
goals are implemented in all member countries to
ensure trust in each other’s higher education
systems; where automatic recognition of
qualifications has become a reality so that students
and graduates can move easily throughout it [...]”
 Policy measures adopted: the revised Standards and
Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European
Higher Education Area (ESG 2015)

6. Automatic Recognition
 Ambitious or obvious goal?
 Challenges for EHEA tools
 Need to work better together
 From non-binding transparency tools to real and
direct consequences
 Non-implementation issues
 Role of QA
 Common standards
 Basis for systematic trust
 EQAR: importance of monitoring

7. Vision for QA, Trust and
(Automatic) Recognition
QA NQF
A
QF-
EHEA
NQF
B
ESG & EQAR self-certification
Qualification
in country A
Level in
country B
map & recognise

8. EQAR website: system
information

9. Database of EQA Reports
 Quality assurance results (decisions + reports):
 ESG 2.6: reports published by the agency
 … but on which agency's website to look for them?
 EQAR Self-Evaluation Report 2016
 Explore possibility of a database of higher education
institutions and programmes
 Goals:
 Identify whether a higher education institution (or its
programmes) went through external quality
assurance by an EQAR-registered agency
 Easy access to the corresponding report

10. Database: functionality
 Using the higher education institution (HEI) as
the starting point
 Search for a specific HEI
 Not a catalogue of programmes/study opportunities
 All types of external QA covered by the ESG
 Evaluation, accreditation, audit, review, etc.
 Institutional or at programme level
 Obligatory and voluntary procedures

11. Database: how it might look

12. Database: your voice
 ENIC-NARIC centres are main target group
 Survey of potential users (until 22 July 2016)
https://eqar.eu/surveys/database-users.html
(and see your email)