Register Committee Special Session on New ESG
VLUHR-QA (the Quality Assurance Unit of the Flemish Council of University and University Colleges), already provisionally registered by way of the EQAR Merger Policy was accepted to the Register after having demonstrated their substantial compliance with the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) through an independent external review.
The main reason for convening the Register Committee meeting so soon after the last meeting in November was to discuss the Revised Version of the ESG and set up ESGInterpretation Guidelines. These Guidelines will be published after the approval of the Revised ESG by the next Ministerial Conference of the EHEA in May 2015, and are meant to:
- increase the transparency of the Register Committee’s decision-making practice;
- help demonstrate consistency in the Committee’s practices, interpretations and decisions on applications;
- aid external review panels in understanding how the Committee has interpreted the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education ESG and used external review reports;
- facilitate the understanding of the Committee’s public decisions.
The ESG Interpretation Guidelines address three main target groups: quality assurance agencies seeking registration on EQAR or having to renew their registration, coordinators of external reviews that are used for registration on EQAR and external review panels undertaking a review against the ESG.