ESQA Project

27/05/2021

📣🔎 ARACIS is constantly focusing on improving and streamlining the involvement of stakeholders in quality assurance activities, as well as in its management structures, as a mandatory condition for increasing the relevance of these activities, but also of society's confidence in the quality of higher education in Romania.
An online questionnaire was elaborated by ARACIS and an analysis of the needs for change has been developed which led, on the basis of the Guide for the effective inclusion of stakeholders in the quality assurance process, to proposals for concrete actions for the future. 📖

Agenția Română pentru Asigurarea Calității în Învățământul Superior din România (ARACIS) are permanent în atenție îmbunătățirea și eficientizarea implicării părților interesate în activitățile de asigurare a calității, precum și în structurile sale de conducere, ca o condiție obligatorie pentru creșterea relevanței acestor activități, dar și a încrederii societății în calitatea învățământului superior din România.

În acest sens, a fost elaborată o analiză a nevoilor de schimbare cu privire la implicarea actorilor interesați, care a condus, în baza Ghidului pentru includerea eficace a părților interesate în procesul de asigurare a calității, la propuneri de acțiuni concrete pentru viitor.

Vă invităm să consultați analiza și acțiunile propuse, și să completați chestionarul ce poate fi accesat la https://forms.gle/NatfsxihZntaZFtFA până la data de 5 Iunie.

Contribuția dumneavoastră este extrem de importantă, pentru a identifica noi direcții pe care ARACIS le poate aborda, în vederea creșterii gradului de implicare în activitățile sale a tuturor părților interesate.

Pentru eventuale clarificări adresa de contact este [email protected].

Analiza poate fi consultată aici: https://bit.ly/3bXOkK2
Ghidul poate fi consultat aici: https://bit.ly/2SvdOrp

21/05/2021

📣 Presentation of ESQA Project within the EURASHE’s 30th Annual Conference❗❗❗

The Effective Involvement of Stakeholders in External Quality Assurance Activities Project was presented at EURASHE’s 30th Annual Conference by an online booth, that summarize the project’s results and activities.
We remind that the main deliverables of the project are the Study and the Guide on stakeholder involvement in external QA. The study takes a comprehensive look at stakeholder engagement in external quality assurance activities by mapping the perspectives of quality assurance agencies, higher education institutions and students on the topic, while the Guide for effective involvement of stakeholders’ in external quality assurance is aiming to provide guidelines and practice based guidance, primarily to the QA agencies and national authorities in the EHEA, to strengthen dialogue and co-operation with stakeholders, as well as for their effective involvement in QA processes.

The conference theme is ‘Professional Higher Education for Sustainable Development: Creating a Change that Endures’ and debates how to overcome the challenges we face, to improve our habitat, our economy and our lives.
The conference program, and other information, can be found at the following link: https://www.eurashe.eu/events/annual-conferences/30th-annual-conference-online-20-21-may-2021/

🔍 More information on ESQA project are available here: https://esqa.ro/

06/05/2021

📣 We are pleased to announce that a PRESS RELEASE 🔍 was posted on ARACIS website about how the Romanian version of the Guide on involvement of stakeholders in quality assurance activities was developed by ARACIS. 🇹🇩🇹🇩
🎉 It can be accessed at the following link: https://www.aracis.ro/comunicat-de-presa-75/

Enjoy the lecture of the english version below ❗️❗️❗ 📚 📖

📌 “ARACIS has released the Romanian version of the Guide on involvement of stakeholders’ in quality assurance activities, a guide developed within the project Effective Involvement of Stakeholders in External Quality Assurance Activities - ESQA. The document can be consulted here:https://esqa.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GESIQA_WEB.pdf
This guide has been developed by two international experts and the main purpose is to provide recommendations aimed primarily at insurance agencies quality and national authorities in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with stakeholders, as well as guidance for their effective involvement in quality assurance processes.

The guide is included in the message of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education - ENQA to the ministers of education from the member countries of the European Higher Education Area, held at the ministerial conference on 19th November 2020 and available here: https://ehea.info/Upload/ENQA_Statement_EHEA_Ministerial_Conference_Rome2020.pdf.
The involvement of stakeholders in external quality assurance (QA) activities represents an obligation of quality assurance agencies, according to the provisions from the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. ARACIS makes continuous efforts to improve the involvement of stakeholders in its work, both at the level of management structures and in the evaluation and quality assurance activities.
The Ministry of National Education, through the Unit for the Management of Externally Financed Projects, started the implementation of the project The effective involvement of stakeholders in external quality assurance activities ESQA, code 607068-EPP-1-2018-1-RO-EPPKA3-BOLOGNA, approved by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, for the co-financing of the ERASMUS+ Program: Higher Education – Knowledge Alliances, Bologna Support, Jean Monnet, the Key Action Support for the implementation of reforms in the European Area of Higher Education (EHEA).

The project runs for a period of 2 years and it is implemented in partnership with the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education ARACIS, as well as with quality assurance agencies in Bulgaria, Denmark, France and Moldova, but also with the European Student Organization. ESU, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education ENQA and the European Association of Higher Education Institutions EURASHE.”

19/11/2020

⏱ The 2020 EHEA Ministerial Conference is about to start and can be watched online here: https://ehea2020rome.it/pages/conference!
The ENQA Message to Ministers Responsible for Higher Education in the EHEA is available in the documents sectionhttps://ehea2020rome.it/storage/uploads/22113e75-cf83-4009-814e-ada67e84db5e/ENQA_Statement_EHEA_Ministerial_Conference_Rome2020.pdf and it mentions the Guide for effective stakeholders' involvement in quality assurance as "a useful tool to facilitate better involvement of all relevant stakeholders in the different external quality assurance processes across the EHEA." 🔍

17/11/2020

📣 The Guide on involvement of stakeholders’ in quality assurance activities is now finalized and can be downloaded here:https://esqa.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GESIQA.pdf

The Guide aims to provide guidelines primarily to the QA agencies and national authorities in the EHEA, to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with stakeholders, as well as for their effective involvement in QA processes.
The guidelines mainly address the stakeholders’ involvement at the level of external QA activities, aiming to find ways to deepen and make their involvement more effective in the EHEA member countries, according to the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG 2015).

Enjoy reading! 📖

17/11/2020

📌 The video recordings of the online peer-learning activity with the participation of the Bologna Thematic Peer Learning Group on Quality Assurance members, based on the draft Guide on involvement of stakeholders’ in quality assurance activities, are now available and can be watched here: https://esqa.ro/online-peer-learning/
🔎 Take a look, if you want to find out more on ways to involve stakeholders or get involved more efficiently in quality assurance activities! 📚

13/10/2020

We are pleased to announce that on the 20th of October 2020/ 13:00 – 17:00 CEST will take place the online peer-learning activity based on the draft Guide on involvement of stakeholders’ in quality assurance activities, that can be found at this link https://esqa.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Draft-ESQA-Guide-for-for-effective-stakeholders-involvement-in-QA_for-consultation.pdf.
This event is destined to the members of the Bologna Peer-Support Group on Quality Assurance, but also to representatives of relevant stakeholders at national level from all EHEA countries.
The overall aim of this Guide is to provide inspiring guidelines and ‘guiding elements’ to support effective stakeholders’ involvement in QA activities, primarily in external QA activities as carried out by QA agencies but they can also be beneficial for stakeholders such as national authorities and higher education institutions (HEIs). The Guide is informed by the Study on Stakeholder Involvement in External Quality Assurance, developed also in the framework of the ESQA project, and available here https://esqa.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Study-on-stakeholder-involvement-in-EQA_web_n.pdf.
For the development of the Guide for effective stakeholders’ involvement in QA there has been a session of Consultations, in order to strengthen and validate the contents of the document among its potential users and relevant stakeholders.
Currently, the Guide is revised according to the results of the Consultations (https://esqa.ro/consultation-of-the-guide-for-effective-stakeholders-involvement-in-qa/), so that a new version will be available soon. The agenda of the event includes a presentation from the authors, as well as two parallel discussion sessions, that will be conducted in the discussion groups themes.
Following the online meeting, the relevant results obtained within the online meeting will be published on our website, alongside the video recording of the event.
For any other information or if you want to share your thoughts, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Consultation of the Guide for effective stakeholders’ involvement in QA July 14, 2020 admin Press release You are kindly invited to respond to a consultation concerning the development of the Guide for effective stakeholders’ involvement in QA. This Guide aims to provide guidelines primarily to ...

02/10/2020

‘Study on Stakeholder Involvement in External ’.

The objective of the present study is to map stakeholder engagement in external quality assurance across the EHEA. The study takes a comprehensive look at stakeholder engagement in external quality assurance activities by mapping the perspectives of quality assurance agencies, higher education institutions and students on the topic. It also presents activities that quality assurance agencies of the ESQA project and beyond have implemented to engage their stakeholders.
The data presented in this report will be used to draft recommendations to quality assurance agencies and national authorities on effective stakeholder engagement in external quality assurance processes.
The study was coordinated by ENQA and had the support of all the members of the consortium.

Please access the link below to the complete study:https://esqa.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Study-on-stakeholder-involvement-in-EQA_web_n.pdf

Also, feel free to send us your feedback and thoughts upon the the subject in concern! 💭
Enjoy your reading!

15/07/2020

You are kindly invited to respond to a consultation concerning the development of the Guide for effective stakeholders’ involvement in QA. This Guide aims to provide guidelines primarily to the QA agencies and national authorities in the EHEA, for strengthening dialogue and cooperation with stakeholders, as well as for their effective involvement in QA processes. The guidelines mainly address the stakeholders’ involvement at the level of external quality assurance (EQA) activities, aiming to find ways to deepen and make more effective their involvement in the EHEA member countries, according to the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG 2015). However, in line with the spread and impact of the ESG 2015 beyond the EHEA, this Guide can also be inspirational for countries and regions outside the EHEA.
With this consultation, in order to strengthen and validate the contents of the document among its potential users and relevant stakeholders as well as to further develop it, we would like to hear your views about the current draft.
Through this link, you may find the draft document with specific questions for your feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WG3CHFF.
Answering the survey will take approximately 20-30 minutes.
More information on the project is available here: http://esqa.ro/
We are looking forward to hearing from you by Monday, 7 September 2020.
Your feedback is very important, thank you in advance for your response!
For any questions, please contact: [email protected] or [email protected].

Sharing best practices among QAAs (Quality Assurance Agencies), in regards to including stakeholders in external quality assurance activities and ongoing development of practices

22/01/2020

As we announced last week, between 15th and 17th of January 2020 took place in Belgium, at Ghent University, the Management meeting and the Peer-learning activity within the Effective involvement of stakeholders in external quality assurance activities (ESQA) project. The Peer-learning activity was held within the third Meeting of the Peer Support Group on QA organized by the Bologna Follow - up Group.

The five QA agencies members in the consortium presented their own experience in what it concerns involvement of stakeholders in QA activities: The Danish Accreditation Institution (DAI), High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher education (HCERES) from France, National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Research (ANACEC) from Republic of Moldova and National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (NEAA) from Bulgaria.

Within the peer-learning activity, ENQA representative held also a presentation of the draft Study related to stakeholders’ involvement in quality assurance activities at European Higher Education Area member countries level.

Therefore, all participants could learn from the European level experience, procedures and examples of best practices, presented in the Study. They had the opportunity to ask questions in order to further clarify different aspects of the study, as being of interest for their own activities and, also, to suggest topics that haven't been tackled by the study yet.

Some of the members of Group C shared their own examples of challenges and successes. They discussed upon the situation in their country regarding the stakeholders’ involvement in EQA and how they approach every category of stakeholders’.

As soon will start the development of the Guideline on involvement of stakeholders, the main deliverable of the project, group C members were asked to express their needs in what it concerns a more efficient involvement of stakeholders’ in their quality assurance procedures, so that those topics to be included.

For further details, you can find the presentations from the meeting on our web-site page: https://esqa.ro. For any other information or if you want to share your thoughts, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].