Accessibility:
25.07.2016
Share it:

Enhancing Quality through Innovative Policy & Practice (EQUIP)

The EQUIP project aims at Enhancing Quality through Innovative Policy & Practice in European higher education by promoting the consistent, efficient and innovative embedding of the revised ESG at grass-root level.

The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, also known as the European Standards and Guidelines or ESG, are the basis for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). They are one of the main achievements of the Bologna Process and its follow-up structure, the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) in the past decade.

The 2012 EHEA Ministerial Conference (Bucharest, Romania) tasked the E4 Group in cooperation with Education International (EI), BUSINESSEUROPE and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) to propose a revised version of the ESG, improving their clarity, applicability and usefulness. In 2014 the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) endorsed the proposed revised version, and it is now subject to approval in May 2015 by the next EHEA Ministerial Conference (Yerevan, Armenia).

Following the adoption of the revised ESG, higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies will need to implement changes in order to comply with the revised version. This implementation requires a multi-level approach in which all stakeholders are involved.

The EQUIP project aims to:

  • Ensure that the European higher education community is aware of the changes in the revised ESG;
  • Support ESG users in facing new challenges in using the revised ESG;
  • Develop an evidence base on the efficient use of the ESG as a tool to ensure quality in higher education;
  • Contribute to the long-term quality enhancement of higher education in the EHEA.

These aims are addressed with the following activities:

  • Publish and promote the revised version of the ESG;
  • Provide training opportunities to all ESG users and stakeholders;
  • Study challenges to the use of the revised ESG and investigate new and innovative methods to fully employ the ESG as a tool to ensure quality in higher education;
  • Develop policy recommendations for practitioners and policy-makers for the future enhancement of quality in European higher education.

Internationally there has been growing interest in the quality of higher education for the past two decades. If Europe is to achieve the goals set out in the Europe 2020 strategy, including raising the employment rate and reducing poverty levels, European higher education will need to contribute by demonstrating that it is willing and able to continuously develop and adapt its systems to ensure that its higher education provision remains of quality.

Partners:

EURASHE- European Association of Institutions in Higher Education

ENQUA – European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education

EUA – The European University Association

ESU – The European Students’ Union

EI – Education International

EQUAR – European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education

UiO – University of Oslo

CCISP – Portuguese Polytechnics Coordinating Council

Duration: 01/11/2015 to 31/01/2018

Publications

ESG 2015

For more information, please consult www.equip-project.eu

This project is co-financed by the European Commission, under the framework of ERASMUS+
EU-flag-Erasmus_vect_POS

Newsletter
sign-up

We make sure you
don't miss any news
Skip to content