ENQA
The European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) was
established in 2000 to promote European cooperation in the field of quality
assurance (QA) in higher education. In 2004, it was changed into
the European Association for
Quality Assurance in Higher Education
,
but its acronym stayed the same (ENQA).
ENQA is a membership association having as members 48 quality assurance
organisations from EHEA member states that operate in the field of higher
education. ENQA membership criteria are identical with the
Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education
Area (ESG).
ENQA disseminates information on experience, good practice and new developments in the field of quality assessment and quality assurance in higher education to stakeholders, namely to public authorities, higher education institutions, students and quality assurance agencies. It represents its members at the European level and internationally as well as organises events, conducts projects and issues publications on current quality assurance themes.
ENQA’s goals are to:
- encourage and develop the exchange of information and experience on quality assurance;
- function as a policy forum, developing and proposing standards, procedures and guidelines for quality assurance;
- fulfil requests for expertise and advice from European Ministers of Education, public authorities and other bodies associated with the EHEA;
- facilitate quality assurance activities in the area of transnational higher education and of e-learning;
- promote the development and implementation of effective peer-review systems for quality assurance and accreditation agencies.
ENQA’s contribution to the Bologna Process:
- 2001-2003: collaboration in establishing a common framework of reference for quality assurance and working towards the establishment of the EHEA by 2010;
- 2003-2005: drafting the ESG in co-operation with its member agencies and the other members of the E4 Group (EUA, EURASHE and ESU). The ESG were adopted in Bergen in 2005;
- Consultative member of the BFUG since 2005;
- 2005-2008: active contribution to the establishment of the
European Quality
Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR)
,
together with its E4 partners. Publication of the E4 Group’s
Report to the London Conference of Ministers on a European Register of
Quality Assurance Agencies. EQAR, the first legal entity emerging from
the Bologna Process, was founded on 4 March 2008 by the E4 Group;
- Membership of the BFUG Working Group “European Higher Education in a Global Setting”;
- Organisation, within the framework of the BFUG work programme, of a Bologna seminar on “Transnational education (TNE) and the OECD-UNESCO- Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education” to be held in London on 1-2 December 2008.