elButlletí

A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

94

July 2019

The LIREQA project (Linking Academic Recognition and Quality Assurance) came to an end on 22 May in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the final conference of the project was held.came to an end on 22 May in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the final conference of the project was held.

Carme Edo, project manager at AQU Catalunya, attended the conference as representative of the Agency, which provided its experience as a quality assurance agency throughout the three years that the project lasted.

The focus of the LIREQA project was on ways in which fair and effective academic recognition practices can be supported through internal and external quality assurance, with the various different stakeholders contributing information on their points of view and situation. These included interest groups, students, higher education institutions, QA agencies, ENIC-NARIC centres, governments and officials representing the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

A series of recommendations aimed at the abovementioned actors was formulated during the conference to encourage academic recognition, in particular:

• Recommendations to higher education institutions:

  • Higher education institutions should establish and/or analyse and streamline their recognition procedures using the Lisbon Recognition Convention, its subsidiary texts, the European Recognition Manual for Higher Education Institutions (EAR-HEI Manual), and other tools developed by the ENIC/NARIC networks.

• Recommendations to quality assurance agencies:

  • Include recognition in regular external quality assurance procedures as appropriate in the context of the higher education system in place and the relevant agency's profile.

• Recommendations to ENIC/NARIC centres:

  • ENIC/NARIC centres should analyse and contribute to the streamlining of national procedures and structures for academic recognition and actively organise and facilitate cooperation between all national skateholders to ensure a coherent and well-functioning recognition system.

The recommendations made are set out in the document Integrating academic recognition and quality assurance: practical recommendations.

LIREQA project has been co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union (Key action 3: Support for Policy Reform) in which AQU Catalunya has participated as a collaborating member.