EQAR Members Dialogue 2025: programme

• Suzanne Conze / Kinga Szuly, European Commission (host)
• Stéphane Lauwick, President EQAR

• E4 representatives

• Aleksandar Šušnjar, EQAR

• Blazhe Todorovski, EQAR

The Knowledge Café gives participants an opportunity to learn about specific developments, initiatives and case studies related to quality assurance in the EHEA. The format enables informal and spontaneous discussions in small groups and allows each participant to visit four of the following topics:

Topics:

• Quality assurance of European Universities Alliances – Elena Cirlan, ENQA
• Presentation of outcomes of the Quality Link project – Colin Tück, KIC
• Introducing quality assurance of micro-credentials in national legislation: example of Slovenia – Jernej Širok, Slovenian Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation
• Recent advances in the implementation of  the European Approach – Daniele Livon, ANVUR
• Regulatory changes in Slovakia impacting the QA framework – Peter Ondreička (The Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic)

1) Assuring Quality, Enabling Recognition: Legal and Digital Pathways
Automatic recognition of qualifications has been a core ambition of the European Higher Education Area. This session will kick off with a presentation introducing the Council of Europe’s forthcoming Convention on Transparency and Quality Assurance, highlighting its role in building trust and reinforcing Bologna commitments. A second presentation will focus on strengthening the connections between digital tools that support automatic recognition – particularly the integration of accreditation data from DEQAR with AR-go, a central portal offering standardized information on nationally recognized qualifications and their comparability in the Benelux countries – alongside other European-level tools. Together, the contributions show how legal frameworks, quality assurance, and digital databases can converge to make recognition more transparent, consistent, and seamless.

Speakers:

• Aurelija Valeikiene, SKVC
• Marie-Anne Persoons, Flemish Ministry of Education and Training & Chair of the Steering Committee for Education at the Council of Europe
• Alessandra Ricci-Ascoli, Council of Europe

Rapporteur: Aleksandra Zhivkovikj, EQAR

2) Linking quality assurance and the social dimension of higher education
This session will examine how quality assurance can contribute to advancing the social dimension of higher education and whether external mechanisms should play a role in monitoring progress. It will build on the work of the Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG) on the social dimension and recent European Commission reports. The session will also consider how principles for the social dimension adopted in the European Higher Education Area could interact with existing quality assurance frameworks. Participants will be invited to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of linking quality assurance with equity and inclusion in higher education.

Speakers:

• Ninoslav Šćukanec Schmidt, Institute for the Development of Education (Croatia) and former Co-Chair of the BFUG Working Group on Social Dimension (2017-2024)
• Arno Schrooyen, ESU and Co-Chair of the BFUG Thematic Peer Group D on Social Dimension (2024-2027)

3) Council Recommendation on a European Quality Assurance and Recognition System in Higher Education
In May 2025 the Council of the European Union adopted a Council Recommendation on a European quality assurance and recognition system in higher education. The Recommendation highlights the role of quality assurance systems as the foundation for mutual trust, which enables transnational cooperation and seamless learning mobility. Besides building the foundations for a joint European degree label, the document includes recommendations to improve all quality assurance systems, specific recommendations to make external evaluations more agile, introduce the concept of a dedicated framework for quality assurance for alliances of higher education institutions and includes recommendations to implement automatic recognition of qualifications. This session will take a closer look at these recommendations and explore how they could fit into ongoing work at national/regional levels.

Speaker:

• Yann-Mael Bideau, European Commission

• Aleksandar Šušnjar, EQAR

• Ulrike Krawagna,  University of Graz, ARQUS Alliance
• Robin Schormans, Maastricht University, YUFE Alliance
• Eva Fernandez de Labastida, Unibasq

Moderator:

• Ronny Heintze, AQAS

• Yann-Mael Bideau, European Commission