Background information
- © Crown copyright
The Founding Members of EQAR, ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE working together as the “E4 Group”, have been mandated to establish a European register for quality assurance agencies by the European Ministers responsible for Higher Education in the 46 countries participating in the Bologna Process. At their last summit in London in May 2007 ministers “welcome[d] the establishment of a register by the E4 group, working in partnership, based on their proposed operational model” in their Communiqué. The E4 Group presented the operational model to ministers in the Report to the London Conference of Ministers on a European Register of Quality Assurance Agencies.
Brief history of EQAR
The concept of a European register of quality assurance agencies was initially welcomed by the ministers of the Bologna signatory countries in 2005 at their Bergen summit. A first proposal for such a register was presented to the ministers in the report Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area prepared by the E4 organisations. Back then minister adopted the Standards and Guidelines as common European reference point for internal and external quality assurance of higher education.
The Bologna Process
Since 1999, European governments have been working closely together to allow Europe’s diverse education systems to articulate better with each other, ultimately aiming at establishing a European Higher Education Area.
The Bologna Process – named after the city of Bologna, where 29 countries signed a declaration marking the beginning of this reform process– nowadays gathers all 46 signatory countries to the Council of Europe’s European Cultural Convention. The E4 organisations are consultative members of the Bologna Process.
In 2006 the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union also expressed their support of the idea to establish a European register of quality assurance agencies in a joint recommendation.
In spring 2007 the E4 Group was able to present a model based essentially on the cooperation of key stakeholders in higher education to the European ministers responsible for higher education. Following the ministers' mandate that model has been implemented in practice and the EQAR Association was founded on 4 March 2008 as an independent organisation in charge of establishing and managing a register of quality assurance agencies.
Relevant documents
|
Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area |
176 K |
|
E4 Report to the London Conference of Ministers on a European Register of Quality Assurance Agencies |
1.3 M |
|
London-Communique-18May2007.pdf London Communiqué: Towards the European Higher Education Area: responding to challenges in a globalised world |
26 K |
|
Information document on EQAR |
194 K |
