On November 8, as part of the Erasmus+ IMINQA project, a conference dedicated to the quality assurance of European university alliances took place in Brussels, Belgium. The co-organizers were the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR).
At ENQA’s invitation, ANQA also took part in the conference, represented by Director and ENQA Board Member Ruben Topchyan. It should be noted that, as part of the EUniq project, ANQA, together with the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ), previously coordinated the external review process of UNITE! - University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering, an alliance of 9 technological universities. This conference was an opportunity to share that practice and apply it to enhance the accreditation process of university alliances.
The representatives from the European University Alliances, education ministries and quality assurance agencies discussed current progress and future prospects in the quality assurance of higher education. A particular emphasis was placed on the accreditation processes of European University Alliances formed for the implementation of joint academic programmes, existing challenges, and the recognition of accreditation results. Discussions also addressed the possibility of legislative reforms, which would enable the recognition of joint accreditation results in all countries involved in the European University Alliances.
The Implementation and Innovation in QA through peer learning (IMINQA) is an umbrella project to support the work of the Bologna Thematic Peer Group C on Quality Assurance (TPG C). The project will focus on quality assurance in the broad sense and thereby work on the implementation of this key commitment in all the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) countries. In addition, it will work on some specific topics with an innovative focus such as quality assurance of micro-credentials, quality assurance of European Universities and digitalization of quality assurance procedures and processes.