General Assembly
The General Assembly is the superior decision-making body of the EQAR Association, gathering all its members.
It convenes annually and decides on the budget, approves the accounts, elects the Executive Board and Appeals Committee, and approves the Register Committee.
19 February 2010: 4th General Assembly, Madrid
EQAR members convened in Madrid on 19 February 2010 for the fourth General Assembly of the association. A new Executive Board was elected at the General Assembly for a 2-year mandate commencing as of 1 March 2010. The following candidates have been nominated and elected: Andrea Blättler (nominated by ESU) Emmi Helle (re-nominated by ENQA) Andreas Orphanides (re-nominated by EURASHE) Lesly Wilson (re-nominated by EUA)
Apart from the election of the Executive Board, a new Chair of the Register Committee as well as two new Register Committee members were approved by the General Assembly. Their two-year mandate will start on 1 July 2010. The new Chair, Kjell Frønsdal - Judge of the Gulating Court of Appeal in Bergen, Norway - was by-elected by the Register Committee on 6 January 2010 after the current Chair, Mr. Justice Bryan McMahon had indicated he was not available for a second mandate. The two new Register Committee members are Gertie de Fraeye and Mindaugas Misiunas.
Another important milestone was the approval of the Initial Plans for the External Evaluation of EQAR. Initial discussions on this subject had already started in September 2009 at the third General Assembly.
29 September 2009: 3rd General Assembly, Stockholm
EQAR’s third General Assembly was held in Stockholm on 29 September 2009. The meeting took place immediately after the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG).
The Chair of the Register Committee, Bryan McMahon, presented the report by the Register Committee on the first two rounds of applications. He expressed that the RC was pleased with the keen interest shown at the last GA for its work. While emphasising the utmost importance of transparency and accountability, he recalled two other important principles, namely confidentiality granted to applicants and the independence of the Register Committee. He explained that the Register Committee worked on the basis of the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) as well as the Procedures for Applications, which were adopted in consultation with the GA. The Committee was committed to ensure that all applications are considered fairly and the available evidence is weighed carefully and rigorously.
Colin Tück, acting director of EQAR, presented the Interim Report on the Plan of Work summarising the goals and activities concerned with the management of the register, as well as the communication and external relations.
The General Assembly discussed the initial plans for the External Evaluation of EQAR. As foreseen by the London Communiqué (2007) and endorsed in the Leuven/Louvain-La-Neuve Communiqué (2009), EQAR should be evaluated externally after two years of operation.
Due to the resignation of Eric Froment from the Register Committee, the General Assembly approved the nomination of Julio Pedrosa as replacement for the remainder of the Register Committee’s mandate.
The European Commission presented the key points of their progress report on Quality Assurance and invited everyone, including other stakeholders, to consult the report and reflect on the ideas presented.
25 March 2009: 2nd General Assembly, Praha
EQAR members convened for their 2nd General Assembly on 25 March 2009 in Praha, Czech Republic. The meeting was held on the day before the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) met, also in Praha, to prepare the next Bologna Process ministerial meeting, which will be held this April in Leuven and Louvain-La-Neuve.
Representatives of Slovenia, which has joined EQAR as Governmental Member right before the General Assembly, and Ireland, which had signed up for governmental membership already last summer, were warmly welcomed at their first General Assembly.
The General Assembly discussed EQAR's first annual report. The report, covering EQAR's activities in 2008 from its founding to the inclusion of the first agencies on the register, will be published when Europe's ministers of higher education meet in April to take stock of progress in the Bologna Process.
Following the end of her mandate in the European Students' Union (ESU) last year, Anne Mikkola, who had served as Vice-President of the Executive Board since EQAR's founding, had resigned from her post to allow a new representative of ESU to take over. The General Assembly by-elected Bruno Carapinha, a member of the ESU Executive Committee.
Bruno will also take over as President of the Executive Board from 1 April 2009, following an agreement to rotate functions annually amongst the representatives of EQAR's four Founding Members. The General Assembly thanked Anne for her work and wished Bruno a successful mandate. Lesley Wilson, who has been its President since March 2008, will continue to serve on the Board as the Treasurer. Emmi Helle and Andreas Orphanides will serve as Vice-Presidents for the coming year.
25 June 2008: First EQAR General Assembly, Sarajevo
- © Daniel Wabyick
The first General Assembly took place on the 25th of June 2008 in Sarajevo, following an extraordinary meeting of the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) convened in Sarajevo to discuss the development of the European Higher Education Area after 2010.
This was the second meeting of the EQAR association members, following the Founding Assembly on 4 March 2008. Four Bologna signatory countries have joined since and were welcomed at the Sarajevo meeting: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Hungary and Norway.
The main objective of the meeting was a consultation on the Procedures for Applications. Those will be adopted by the Register Committee during the coming weeks, taking due account of the questions and comments arising from the Sarajevo meeting.
The General Assembly adopted EQAR's Mission Statement, the Appeals Procedure and the budgets for the financial years 2008 and 2009. It has by-elected Ms Geri Bonhof as deputy member of the Appeals Committee.
4 March 2008: EQAR Founding Assembly
Following the signing of EQAR's statutes by the representatives of the E4 Group, the members of the new association hold a Founding Assembly in the Royal Academy of Science and Arts (Brussels, Belgium).
Apart from the four Founding Members, two Social Partner Members (BUSINESSEUROPE, Education International) and 19 Governmental Members joined the EQAR Association on 4 March and participated in the Founding Assembly.
The Founding Assembly elected an Appeals Committee, approved the nominations to the Register Committee and endorsed the Executive Board appointed by the founders. A preliminary budget for 2008 and a membership fee scale were approved.
