CEENQA General Assembly 2012

The annual CEENQA Workshop and General Assembly took place on 11-12 May 2012, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The events were hosted by the Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance HEA, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

altCEENQA opening

The Workshop held at the University of Sarajevo was devoted to the discussion of the EHEA Ministerial Conference and the Bologna Policy Forum, which took place on 26-27 April 2012, Bucharest, Romania.
The following presentations were made at the Workshop:
•    After the Bologna Bucharest Conference: What is new on the way to Bologna 2020? - Professor Birger Hendriks, Bologna Follow-up Group representative;
•    On the way to Europe 2020: the Bologna process in need of a new sex appeal? - Professor Ulrich Teichler, International Centre for Higher Education Research, Kassel, Germany.

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Professor Birger Hendriks, Bologna Follow-up Group representative

Professor Ulrich Teichler, International Centre for Higher Education Research, Kassel, Germany

The participants showed a particular interest in the presentation delivered by Achim Hopbach, ENQA President who focused on the revision of the European Standards and Guidelines and the outcomes of the recently completed project MAP-ESG.

altAchim Hopbach, ENQA President

The issue of the ESG revision stimulated a heated discussion as ESG constitute the basic principles of the European quality assurance as well as the ENQA membership criteria. Are fundamental changes to ESG really needed?  Will the QA stakeholders go on searching for a consensus in the terminology used in quality assurance? What implications will ESG revision have for CEENQA member agencies? These questions were discussed by the workshop participants.

At the end of the first day Presidents of the two European quality assurance networks Iring Wasser (CEENQA) and Achim Hopbach (ENQA) signed the new ENQA-CEENQA Cooperation Agreement.

alt  Achim Hopbach (ENQA) and  Iring Wasser (CEENQA) signed the new ENQA-CEENQA Cooperation Agreement.

CEENQA General Assembly held on 12 May 2012 covered a number of issues including amendments to CEENQA Statutes and the development of its Regulation on membership applications, the report by Board members on activities, CEENQA information bulletin and other questions. This year the GA roundtable discussion provided a platform for participants to share the latest developments, events, achievements and challenges in the activities of their agencies in the national contexts. Presentation on NCPA operations made by Galina Motova, NCPA Deputy Director, aroused a particular interest among colleagues, because, as was mentioned by CEENQA President Dr. Iring Wasser, it reflected the quality, multifaceted approach and dynamics of the young Russian quality assurance agency.

 altCEENQA General Assembly session

The following new CEENQA member agencies were introduced at the CEENQA General Assembly-2012 :

  • • Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Health and Social Sciences (AHPGS), Germany;
  • • Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria (AQ Austria);
  • • Lithuanian Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (SKVC);
  • • Higher Education Planning, Evaluation, Accreditation and Coordination Council (YODAK), Cyprus.

The General assembly concluding report was made by Dr. Iring Wasser who spoke about success factors for maintaining and developing a regional QA Network such as CEENQA.

44 representatives of 17 quality assurance agencies, European education and research institutions took part in the annual CEENQA Workshop and General Assembly. Russia was represented by Galina Motova, NCPA Deputy Director, and Zhanna Kuzminykh, Head of the NCPA International Relations Department.

alt ENQA President Achim Hopbach during the lobby interview with Russian colleagues: NCPA Deputy Director, Galina Motova and Head of the NCPA International Relations Department, Zhanna Kuzminykh.