EQAF 2019 – Supporting societal engagement of higher education

Representatives of Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education have participated in the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF), which took place from 21-23 November at Technical University Berlin in Germany. More than 500 participants attended the event. It focused on how quality assurance can support higher education institutions in meeting stakeholder expectations and in demonstrating their value to society.

Plenary sessions addressed big issues such as how higher education institutions can define their role in society; the value of stakeholder input when assuring the quality of institutional activities; and the kind of external quality assurance that is needed to keep pace with changes in higher education.

Breakout sessions covered the role that quality assurance plays in fostering important institutional responsibilities in areas such as diversity and inclusion, sustainable development and providing education that is geared towards student learning and success.

In EUA’s Expert Voices, Tia Loukkola gave an overview of the diverse questions being addressed, specifically if quality assurance as we know it will remain relevant amid the changing higher education landscape and what developments could be on the horizon.

The Forum, now in its 14th year, was co-organised by EUA, ENQA, ESU, and EURASHE and is Europe’s largest annual gathering of quality assurance stakeholders.

All presentations given at EQAF are available on the Forum website. The papers presented at the Forum are available in the EUA publications database.

The next edition of the Forum will take place on 12-14 November 2020, hosted by Aalto University in Finland.