It has been up-and-running for the last two years, but with the help of Council of Europe, ESU has just held the very first training session in Strasbourg for students keen to join our Students' Experts Pool and thereby play a key role in ensuring quality in institutions and quality assurance agencies around Europe.  22 national QA student experts from across Europe came together for 5 days of training to enable their participation in review panels at European level, and thus to facilitate the sustainable evolution of the pool.

In the setting of the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg, students discussed a range of novel ideas including delivering higher expertise through peer to peer and non-formal learning.  An in-depth look was taken at the European Standards and Guidelines in Quality Assurance (ESG) which should, in the view of students, be the central reference document for quality assurance. As data from Bologna With Student Eyes 2009 (BWSE 2009) shows, proper consideration of the ESG has led to higher student participation, yet there are still enourmous gaps across Europe in terms of how students are perceived in quality assurance processes, especially those focusing on internal quality assurance.

ESU strongly believes that promotion of a quality culture, including equal participation of stakeholders, is essential to the development of higher education institutions, and we are fortunate to be witnessing a steady growth in student participation. With more and more requests being received to help institutions find expert student evaluators, the development of the pool and its capacity is essential to respond to this.  The Strasbourg session was part of a whole programme of activities designed to continue building up the experts’ pool – including training sessions, administrative support, facilitation of new concepts in quality assurance, quality enhancement study visits to student unions and so much more. One possibility is to have all-student review panels doing special evaluations of institutions in the very near future, or to have student support services embedded into quality assurance processes.

Student-led quality assurance is unbeatable -  a central tool for ensuring that higher education serves its purpose in developing students’ skills and values, facilitating new knowledge and ensuring the enrichment of the wider society. ESU is excited and privileged to be at the forefront of such an initiative.