Supporting European QA Agencies in meeting the ESG (SEQA-ESG)

Aims and activities

The main objective of the project is to support quality assurance (QA) agencies and national authorities in six countries (Albania, the Czech Republic, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, and Slovakia) to create an ESG-compliant QA system, which is one of the Bologna Process key commitments.

More specifically, the project aims to achieve:

  1. legal frameworks in line with ESG compliance;
  2. alignment of the QA processes to the ESG peer-review method;
  3. connection of national criteria with the ESG;
  4. appropriate methods and criteria for the involvement of peer reviewers; and
  5. stakeholder involvement in external QA.

Activities:
To reach the objectives, the following activities are foreseen in the project:

  1. Peer counselling in the six countries, gathering national authorities, the agency and key stakeholders. The key outcome of the activity is a national action plan for QA development (six in total).
  2. Peer learning workshops on four key themes (QA methodology, QA criteria, review experts and stakeholders). The workshops target all QA agencies from the six partner countries (total of 25 people/workshop).
  3. Staff exchanges between agencies (six in total), with multiplier presentations upon return, and
  4. Creation of agency action plans for a review against the ESG (six in total).

The activities listed above are designed to address different needs appropriately, both at the legal framework level as well as within the agencies, and ensure that the six countries make fast progress in achieving ESG compliance.

ENQA’s role

ENQA is the coordinator of this project.

Consortium

The project involves ENQA as the coordinator and partners from each of the six countries:

ENQA – European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, Belgium (Coordinator)

ASCAL – Albanian Quality Assurance Agency, Albania

MESY – Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, Albania

MSMT – Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic

NCFHE – National Commission for Further and Higher Education, Malta

ANACEC – National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Research, Moldova

MECC – Ministry of Education, Moldova

ACQAHE – Agency for Control and Quality Assurance of Higher Education, Montenegro

MPS – Ministry of Education, Montenegro

SAAHE – Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education, Slovakia

MSVVaS – Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport, Slovakia

Funding and duration

Call: EPLUS-2019-09-EHEA – Initiatives to support the implementation of European Higher Education Area (EHEA) reforms
Timeline:
The project is being held from 1 June 2020 to 31 May 2022 (24 months). An extension until 30 November 2022 was granted in early 2022.

Staff mobilities

SEQA-ESG staff mobilities support the professional development of the partner QA agencies’ personnel by offering a work placement in an experienced EHEA QA agency. Each mobile peer further develops their QA competencies through different methods such as job shadowing, observation of site visits/meetings, participation in training sessions etc. at a host QA agency. The staff mobility is linked to the national action plan (see below) and priorities and are designed to meet the specific needs of the agency at its own stage of development.

Host agencies:

Academic Information Centre (AIC)

National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR)

Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE)

Agency for Quality Assurance through Accreditation of Study Programmes (AQAS)

Contact and further information

For further information, please contact Goran Dakovic.

Outcomes

National Action Plans

  • The National Action Plan for Albania is available here.
  • The National Action Plan for the Czech Republic is available here.
  • The National Action Plan for Malta is available on the MFHEA website.
  • The National Action Plan for Moldova is available here.
  • The National Action Plan for Montenegro is available here.
  • The National Action Plan for Slovakia is available on the SAAHE and MSVVaS webpages.

Peer learning workshops reports

  • Peer learning workshop on alignment of processes and methods to the ESG. The report is available here.
  • Peer learning workshop on national criteria and the ESG. The report is available here.
  • Peer learning workshop on role, selection and training of external review experts. The report is available here.
  • Peer learning workshop on stakeholder involvement. The report is available here.

Mobility reports

  • Mobility report of the ACQAHE participant is available here.
  • Mobility report of the ANACEC participant is available here.
  • Mobility report of the ASCAL participant is available here.
  • Mobility report of the MFHEA participant is available here.
  • Mobility report of the NAB participant is available here.
  • Mobility report of the SAAHE participant is available here.

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