Day 1_Keynote Speaker_ from Achim Hopbach.pdf

External Quality Assurance in Education

1. External Quality Assurance in the
European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
DAAD/Ministry ofEducation and Culture ofIndonesia webinar
„AcquiringInternational Accreditation fromEQAR-Registered Agencies“
9 December2020
DrAchim Hopbach
Higher Education Consultant
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2. Quality Assurance in the EHEA: Milestones
2003 HEI have the primary responsibility for quality and quality assurance; self commitment to set up national QA systems
2005“Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area” (ESG)
2008European Quality Assurance Register(EQAR)
2009 QA became item of the Bologna stock-taking
2015Revision of the ESG
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3. QA infrastructure in the EHEA: ESG
§set a common framework for quality assurance
systems at European, national and institutional
level and cover:
Internal QA external QA QA-Agencies
§focus on teaching and learning in higher education,
including the learning environment and relevant
links to research
§apply to all higher education offered in the EHEA
regardless of the mode of study or place of delivery
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ESG –part 1: IQA
1 Policy for quality assurance
2 Design and approval of programmes
3 Student-centred learning, teaching and assessment
4 Student admission, progression, recognition and certification
5 Teaching staff
6 Learning resources and student support
7 Information management
8 Public information
9 On-going monitoring and periodic review of programmes
10 Cyclical external quality assurance
ØFormalized IQA policy, taking into account key Bologna
commitments, involving stakeholders

5. ESG –part 2: EQA
1 Consideration of internal quality assurance
2 Designing methodologies fit for purpose
3 Implementing processes
4 Peer-review experts
5 Criteria for outcomes
6 Reporting
7 Complaints and appeals
ØExternal review with pre-defined rules (based on
self-evaluation) by peers (incl. students) with site-
visit and publication of report
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ESG –part 3: agencies
1 Activities, policy and processes for quality assurance
2 Official status
3 Independence
4 Thematic analysis
5 Resources
6 Internal quality assurance and professional conduct
7 Cyclical external review of agencies
ØIndependence of agencies and professional conduct

7. QA infrastructure in the EHEA: Actors
§ENQA: membership organisation, recognized representative of agencies (55 members)(plus other agency-organisations)
§EQAR: list of agencies (49 agencies)
§E4 (ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE): continuous collaboration of key stakeholders
§BFUG (Bologna Follow-up Group): Operational arm of the ministerial meetings
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8. QA infrastructure in the EHEA: Actors
External evaluation of agencies against ESG
§precondition for ENQA membership and
inclusion on EQAR
§decisive for reputation and recognition of
agencies
“It is revealing that the external evalu-
ationsof quality assurance agencies are
often referred to as external reviews of
national quality assurance systems.”
Hopbach (2020)
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9. EQA –State ofplay
§Adaption ofIQA and EQA toESG isdiverse.
§Most agenciesapplymorethanoneapproach;
agenciesfrequentlychangetheirapproach(es)
§By and large national external qualityassurance
regimes, IQA and theagenciesarein compliance
withESG.
ØVariety and continuouschangearekeyfeaturesof
EQA in theEHEA
ØThe emergenceofa unifiedEuropean quality
assurancesystemisunlikely. National agendas
matter!
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10. Agencies operating abroad
§Most agencies (esp. public authorities) are required to apply
certainmethodologies within the country
§All agencies are required to apply ESG within EHEA
ØOutside their national contexts(most) agencies apply specific
methodologies to be agreed with the HEI.
ØDecisions don’t have legal effects such as recognition of a HEI
or a programme in the agencies’ countries or in the EHEA.
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[email protected]
ESG | ENQA
ENQA | European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education
www.eqar.eu
www.ehea.eu
The European Higher Education Area in 2020: Bologna Process Implementation Report | Eurydice (europa.eu)
Achim Hopbach (2020), The Bologna Process: Blessing and Curse for ENQA and External Quality Assurance? Reflections from an ENQA-alumni, in: ENQA (ed.), Advancing quality in European higher education: celebrating 20 years of ENQA”, Brussels.