Communication

The website has always been EQAR’s main communication tool to address its target audiences. This has been the case since the start of EQAR in 2008, when the “registered agencies” page was the most important page. Since the launch of the Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR) in 2018, there has been a steady increase in website visitors, especially on the DEQAR pages. In 2025, the total came to around 103 100 visits, while there were more than 102 000 visits the previous year and more than 79 000 visits in 2023.

In 2025, more than 45% of all page views was on the DEQAR pages, followed by around 16% on the Knowledge Base pages and approximately 15% on the Register pages, both of which are linked from the database via the agency and country information.

Apart from the main pages mentioned above, there is a lot of other useful information on our website, although less frequently visited than the above pages:

• News
  Around 12 news-items per year are published under “News”. In our social media posts and newsletters, we link to the relevant news-item.
• Official documents
  This page can be found under “About”. You will find policies,  such as our Strategy, the Statutes, the Use and Interpretation of the ESG, the Code of Conduct, Complaints Policy, the Annual Reports and more.
• Organisation and Structure
  This page can also be found under “About”. You will find everything about the organisational structure of EQAR, including the responsibilities, composition, mandate, nomination and or terms of office of the different entities/bodies of EQAR; the General Assembly, the Register Committee, the President, the Board, the Appeals Committee and the Secretariat. A list and map of EQAR members is also available as well an overview of past General Assemblies and the relevant highlights of those.
• Topics such as Cross Border Quality Assurance, and the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes, can be found under “Knowledge Base”.
• Events
  This page can be found under “About” and contains information about both past and upcoming events.
• Projects
  This page can also be found under “About” and contains information about both current and past projects.
• EQAR’s mission and vision and values, our history and the criteria for inclusion and can be found in Close-up under “About”.
• Essential info under “Database/find out more” features an overview of the whys and wherefores of DEQAR, including an explainer video, a Glossary and FAQ.

Newsletters
EQAR issued four newsletters in 2025, reaching each around 940 recipients.
Newsletter topics included information about the decisions of the Register Committee, general EQAR updates, external QA activities of EQAR-registered agencies, relevant policy updates and documents with regard to QA and the use of EQAR in the national QA frameworks of the EHEA countries, DEQAR updates, project updates as well as organisational updates.

Social Media
EQAR also remained active on social media, mostly on LinkedIn. Since interactions on X (former Twitter) were dwindling, EQAR started posting on Bluesky from February onward. Although other organisations also followed suit (or had already done so), interactions remained (and still remain) very low. An attempt to post something on X again, later in the year, had very low results too. Since LinkedIn seems to be the (HE) platform where EQAR’s stakeholders and contacts are focusing on, EQAR put more emphasis on LinkedIn, while continuing on Bluesky (22 posts in 2025) and using Facebook only for recruitment purposes.

A total of 25 LinkedIn posts were shared in 2025, generating an average engagement rate of 12.2% (the number of interactions divided by impressions).  At the end of 2025, EQAR had around 3 000 LinkedIn followers and 34 Bluesky followers.

The following documents were published in 2025 and were promoted in the newsletter as well as on social media:

• Revised Policy on the Use and Interpretations of the ESG
  Following the consultation on the Policy on the Use and Interpretation of the ESG (U&I), launched in 2024, the revised version of the document was published in 2025. The Register Committee took into account comments and suggestions that were provided by review agencies, review panel members, review coordinators and former RC members. The Policy assists applicant QA agencies, review panels and the Register Committee itself when interpreting the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). The document supports a common understanding, without being exhaustive or exclusive, simply aiming to increase transparency, awareness and consistency within the decision-making process of the Register Committee.
  See also chapter: Managing the Register/Revised Policy on the U&I  
  ⇒ Download the revised policy
• Guiding Questions for Panels: external quality assurance of activities in development
  In March 2025, the Register Committee published guiding questions that can be used as an aiding tool by external review panels, when reviewing activities within the scope of the ESG that at the time of the site visit have not been launched yet, but are in a planning or pilot phase. The reasoning behind this document is that in between the cyclical reviews, agencies often introduce new activities and/or revise existing ones and report these changes to EQAR (via change reports). Assessing compliance of these newly introduced or revised activities without an in-depth external review can however be challenging for the EQAR Register Committee. Since the external reviews are an excellent opportunity for the Register Committee to gain insight in an activity before listing it on the Register, the RC finds it beneficial to include the pilot activities in the external reviews, even if they have not been launched in their final form yet. The reflections of the panel will not impact the judgement of compliance by the Register Committee.
  ⇒ Find out more about the essence, the rational and added value
  ⇒ Download the Guiding Questions
• The Annual Report 2024 was published on the EQAR website in March 2025.
• The revised EQAR Procedures for Applications
  During the summer of 2025, the Register Committee conducted internal and member-wide consultations to revise EQAR’s Procedures for Applications—the binding regulations for the application process. Following these discussions and in accordance with the EQAR Statutes, the Register Committee formally adopted the revised Procedures during its November meeting.
  ⇒ See also Chapter: Managing the Register/Revision of the Procedures for Applications
  ⇒ Check out the revised Procedures for Applications