The Recognising International Quality Assurance Activity in the European Higher Education Area (RIQAA) project's overarching aim is to enhance the level of trust and recognition of EQAR-registered agencies carrying out reviews across borders, in line with the EHEA Ministers' commitment.

Participants will be invited to discuss the current level of recognition of cross-border external QA throughout the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the experiences of quality assurance agencies and higher education institutions, and the resulting conclusions and policy recommendations. EQAR will feed those into the preparation for the Yerevan Ministerial Conference in May 2015.

The RIQAA Project

Read more on the RIQAA project

Purpose

The project aims to provide stakeholders and policy makers with information regarding the existing legal practices in EHEA countries recognising EQAR-registered agencies.

Additionally the project looks into how HEIs make use of the existing possibilities to request quality reviews by foreign agencies listed on the Register, as well as the rationale behind it. The strategic objective/aim is to promote, through EQAR, international trust and recognition of registered QAAs, their results and decisions throughout the EHEA.

Summary of Results and Recommendations

The RIQAA project revealed that quality assurance agencies have rapidly expanded their international activities, while higher education institutions are keen to take advantage from the opportunities of a cross-border external review. But even though cross-border reviews are a reality in almost all EHEA member countries, only a small number of countries allow their higher education institutions to work with a suitable quality assurance agency from abroad.