Public consultation on the draft ESG

The ESG Steering Committee invites all interested parties and individuals to give their feedback on the draft of the 2027 version of the ESG (Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area).

This public consultation is open until 9 January 2026 and can only be done through the dedicated survey (more information below).

The first version of the ESG was adopted in 2005. In 2012 ministers agreed that the ESG should be revised in order “to improve their clarity, applicability and usefulness, including their scope”. The whole process lasted three years and resulted in the ESG 2015.

In 2024 ministers agreed to another revision of the ESG  “to keep them in line with ongoing developments, challenges and expectations”. Following this mandate, given at the Ministerial Conference of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in May 2024, the ESG authors established a Steering Committee to prepare a new version of the document, expected to be approved at the next Ministerial Conference in May 2027. The Steering Committee has now published a first complete draft and invites feedback from all stakeholders.

EQAR is part of the Steering Committee but not of the Drafting Committee. Find out more about the structures of the ESG revision process.

The consultation package consists of:

• The full draft text of the ESG 2027 (pdf)
• An explanatory note (pdf)
• Full text of the survey (pdf)
• Link to feedback survey (weblink)

Input to the consultation should be provided through the dedicated survey. The deadline for responses is 9 January 2026. Feedback submitted through other channels (including by email to Steering Committee members/authoring organisations) will not be accepted. However, the same draft will be discussed at the BFUG meeting in Copenhagen next month, and the input received during that discussion will of course be taken into account by the ESG Steering Committee.

The survey allows feedback to be given on each standard of the ESG, as well as on each section as a whole. Respondents are not required to give feedback on all standards. Note that the survey should be completed in one sitting – it is not possible to close the survey and return where you left off.

Please keep in mind that this is the first draft of the ESG 2027 intended for stakeholders to provide input to the revision. In addition to addressing the input received, the ESG Steering Committee will continue working on the coherence, consistency and wording of the text prior to finalisation of the drafting process.