A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

40

January 2009

Promoted by the European ministers of higher education at Bergen 2005, the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) lists the quality agencies operating in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) which are considered to be solvent and trustworthy and to possess a good credibility.

The register, founded by ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE, will allow students and employers across Europe to learn which institutions of higher education and which curricula have been submitted to an external quality assessment by an independent agency, and what the results have been. Additionally, the register will promote academic mobility within the EHEA and it will consolidate the processes of mutual recognition of the results of the quality assessments among all the agencies which form part of it.

Admission to the register, after an international external assessment which has verified the Agency's compliance with the European standards, opens new possibilities for the whole of Catalunya's university system within the European context.

AQU Catalunya, ANECA and NVAO (of the Netherlands and Flanders) are the first three agencies to enter the European Quality Assurance Register, and 18 more agencies are currently in the process of seeking admission.