39 new members of ESU’s Student Experts’ Pool on Quality Assurance

BRUSSELS – The European Students’ Union (ESU) welcomes the 39 individuals that were newly selected as members of the ESU Student Experts’ Pool on Quality Assurance (ESU QA Pool). Now there are 66 students from 26 different countries registered as members of the pool, balanced by gender, study fields and regions in Europe.

These students will have the opportunity to increase their knowledge of higher education in Europe, get involved in quality assurance processes, represent the pool at external events and governing bodies, expand their networks, participate in trainings and develop their communication skills. At the same time as the group welcomes its 39 new members, it also recognises the valuable contribution of the 37 members who have now left the pool. It is the hope of the European Students’ Union that those outgoing members will continue to use and share their knowledge to improve quality assurance activities all over the world.

A new member of the Steering Committee

Following an open call to renew the Steering Committee for the ESU QA Pool it was also decided to select Martynas Serys-Kubertavicius as a new member of it. Serys-Kubertavicius has been involved in quality assurance and enhancement activities for more than four years. While completing his undergraduate degree, he was a course representative on numerous occasions and a member of various teaching and learning committees. He has been an Associate Trainer at student participation in quality Scotland and a student reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency in the United Kingdom.

The Steering Committee also thanked Dan Derricott for his contribution to its work in the past year. Derricott was selected for his one year mandate as a member of the Steering Committee in the beginning of last year. Derricott will nevertheless continue to work for student engagement in quality assurance activities, but he was recently nominated to the Steering Committee of the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF), the largest event of its kind in Europe. He will serve as the chairperson for EQAF for the next two years.

The Steering Committee of the ESU QA Pool is composed of five individuals, of which two are elected representatives of the European Students’ Union. These representatives are responsible for the coordination of the work of students involved in the student experts’ pool, organising events and training session and providing necessary material relevant to its function.

Supporting one thousand student representatives

“We launched a call for new members of the ESU QA Pool in January and we were very happy with the high level of interest in this work and the number of applications that we received. We have been operating the student experts’ pool since 2009 and we have cooperated with many quality assurance organisations across Europe, such as the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP). It is our hope that the material that was published as part of our research project Quest for Quality for Students and the student experts’ pool will have a direct positive impact on the work of at least one thousand student representatives over the next two years,” says Fernando Miguel Galán Palomares, Vice-Chairperson of the European Students’ Union.

To see the full list of people that are members of the student experts’ pool on quality assurance and for more information about student engagement in quality assurance in general, please visit the Quest for Quality for Students website.

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For more information, please contact:

Fernando Miguel Galán Palomares, ESU Vice-Chairperson: +32/473.669.892 // fernando@esu-online.org or Robert Hlynur Baldursson, ESU Communications Manager: +32/473.669.894 // robert@esu-online.org