European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education
Budget
€647,848
EP Access
0
accredited persons
Staff
4
3.75 FTE
EU Grants
€34,678
Mission & Goals
EQAR’s vision is a coherent quality assurance framework for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in which higher education institutions have the freedom to turn to a suitable EQAR-registered agency for their external quality assurance reviews, and in which qualifications are thus universally recognised. EQAR’s mission is to further the development of the EHEA by increasing the transparency of quality assurance, and thus enhancing trust and confidence in European higher education. To achieve its mission EQAR manages a register of quality assurance agencies operating in Europe that substantially comply with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) and a Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR), listing higher education institutions and programmes that were quality assured by those agencies.
EU Legislative Interests
- EU contribution to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) - European Education Area: automatic recognition, European Universities initiative, micro-credentials, European Degree, etc. - Digitalisation in higher education - Erasmus+ Programme, especially joint degrees - Joint European Degree - European Higher Education Sector Observatory - A blueprint for a European degree - The Council Recommendation on a European quality Assurance and Recognition System in higher Education. - European Degree Policy Lab
Communication Activities
In 2018, EQAR launched the Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR). The database enables a broad range of users to satisfy their information needs and support different types of decisions (e.g. recognition of degrees, mobility of students, portability of grants/loans). Through this database EQAR contribute to the transparency of external quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Currently the Europeans Digital Credential Initiative In 2022, EQAR concluded the Erasmus+-funded DEQAR CONNECT project. The project expanded DEQAR's coverage to countries currently under-represented and explored possible synergies and new opportunities to use DEQAR data directly in the recognition workflow (with ENIC-NARICs) and digital credentialing (European Digital Credentials for Learning - EDC - and European Blockchain Services Infrastructure - EBSI). EQAR has also been a part of the Early Adopters Programme of EBSI. Integration with Digital Credentials EQAR is supporting the European Digital Credentials Initiative (EDCI). Accredited credentials are checked against the accreditation database that is part of the (Europass) Qualifications Dataset Register (QDR). DEQAR data is automatically exported to the QDR, enabling institutions to issue EDC credentials that can be verified as accredited. The interface to Europass Digital Credentials for the European Learning Model version 3 (ELMv3) has been updated, and the export is made by default. As of 2024, programme accreditations from DEQAR are accurately represented and have been included in the data export too. EQAR also collaborates with the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). DEQAR data is used in verifying the information on institutional and programme accreditations. EQAR also has a collaboration with the European Tertiary Education Register (ETER). ETER provides the number of external quality assurance procedures (excluding those with negative decisions) recorded in DEQAR for each reference year, distinguishing between institutional evaluation, program evaluation at different ISCED level, joint program evaluation and cross-border evaluation. Other projects and policy initiatives to which EQAR has contributed recently and currently: - Automatic recognition (EU Council Recommendation, 2019) - Micro-credentials (EU consultation group, 2020 & Microbol project, associate partner, 2020/21) - European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes - Projects under the EHEA Thematic Peer Groups on Quality Assurance and Recognition: * Implementation and Innovation in QA through peer learning (IMINQA) * TPG-LRC Constructing Recognition in the EHEA (TPG-LRC CoRE) * Quality Assurance Fit for the Future (QA-FIT) * DIGI-REQA - Digital Tools and Quality Assurance for Automatic Recognition * SIQA - Support for the enhancement-oriented implementation of the quality assurance key commitment * TPG-LRC Plus - Fostering LRC implementation in the EHEA
Interests Represented
Does not represent commercial interests
Member Of
Federation of European and International Associations established in Belgium (FAIB)
Organisation Members
https://www.eqar.eu/about/eqar-structure/members/
Commissioner Meetings
No recorded meetings with EU commissioners.