ENQA has obtained funding for a LLP/Erasmus proposal entitled “Transparency of European higher education through public quality assurance reports” (EQArep). The two-year project started on 1 October 2012 and will end on 30 September 2014. The project’s overall aim is to develop European standards for quality assurance reports.
TERM/DURATION
1 October 2012 to 30 September 2014 (24 months)
PARTNERSHIP
The consortium of the project includes ENQA (as applicant and coordinator), the Swiss Center of Accreditation and Quality Assurance in HE (OAQ), the Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), the Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) and the Estonian Higher Education Quality Agency (EKKA).
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Objectives
The project will map the current publication practices, explore the different needs of stakeholders for transparent and comparable information, develop standards for different types of quality assurance reports in the EHEA and evaluate whether a European template for quality assurance reports is feasible.
Target groups
The main direct target groups are quality assurance agencies and other stakeholders in higher education quality assurance, namely students, higher education institutions, employers and governments.
Methodology
In order to assess the possibility of setting up a European template for quality assurance reports, the methodology of the project will consist in consulting various stakeholders and quality assurance agencies through online surveys in order to identify and compare their needs and demands. Based on the findings of the surveys, the project will develop recommendations and standards on external review reports and if feasible a template for review report summaries or full technical reports.
Activities
Main activities of the project include:
- Survey on stakeholders’ demands for transparency
- Workshop on stakeholders’ demands for transparency
- Survey on publication of QA results: purpose, structure and content
- Workshop on publication of QA results: purpose, structure and content
- Elaboration of standards for external evaluations reports
- Final dissemination conference
- Final report / publication
PROJECT OUTCOMES
The project will result in a recommendation to quality assurance agencies on the content and form of informative and approachable quality assurance reports. Thus, the envisaged impact is a higher degree of compatibility of quality assurance reports and consequently a better contribution of quality assurance to transparency of higher education at the European level.
PROJECT EVENTS
The workshop on stakeholders’ demands for transparency took place on 6-7 May 2013 in Tallinn, Estonia with the participation of various stakeholders from different backgrounds (employers, students, government representatives, experts working in the field of QA). During the workshop,the results of the “stakeholders’ demands for transparency” survey were presented to the participants and further discussed. The breakout group discussions focused on the needs and expectations of the stakeholders on quality assurance reports and helped to gather valuable information for the project.
Programme and list of participants
The findings of the survey on “stakeholders’ demands for transparency” and the outcomes of the workshop have resulted in a report that can be found here.
The workshop on publication of QA results: purpose, structure and content took place on 16-17 January 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland following the findings of the QA agencies survey on the same theme.The workshop gathered ENQA member quality assurance agencies and the discussions focused on the analysis of the format and content of current summary reports of external reviews and how the summary reports could be improved for better usage by the relevant stakeholders and whether a European template or a guide of content is feasible.The results of the workshop will help develop recommendations for the content and structure of (WP4)
Programme and List of Participants
The final dissemination conference will take place on 22-23 September in Brussels, Belgium and is expected to gather around 100 stakeholders (policy makers, students, employers, QA experts) and practitioners from QA agencies.
Project Website
The EQArep website is available here.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
