Key Considerations for Cross-Border Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area

ESU  in collaboration with  EURASHE, ENQA, EUA and EQAR has published an informative document on ‘Key Considerations for Cross-Border Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area’.

The development of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) through the Bologna Process has contributed to an increase in cross-border exchanges and cooperation in higher education, including in quality assurance (QA). In the Yerevan Communiqué (2015) ministers in charge of higher education in the EHEA committed to allowing “higher education institutions to use a suitable EQAR registered agency for their external quality assurance process, respecting the national arrangements for the decision making on QA outcomes”.

In this context, cross-border QA refers to external QA activities of a QA agency carried out in a country other than the one in which it is based or primarily operates. For higher education institutions, this may be a voluntary process or part of the national mandatory external QA.

ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE and EQAR have therefore developed these ‘Key Considerations for Cross-Border Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area’ intended to provide information and support to higher education institutions and QA agencies that engage in or consider engaging in cross-border QA activities within the EHEA.