Call for students for the ESU Quality Assurance Students Experts’ Pool
The Steering Committee of the ESU QA Student Experts’ Pool hereby opens a call for 40 members of the ESU Quality Assurance Student Experts’ Pool. In addition to new recruits, the call is also being issued to current members of the ESU QA Pool, who wish to continue their activities as pool members.
Successful applicants will be included into ESU’s quality assurance experts’ pool until 30th of June 2017. Becoming a member of the pool will give eligibility to be nominated by ESU for quality assurance reviews and trainings, and provide an opportunity to gain more knowledge about quality assurance in Europe.
Introduction
The ESU Quality Assurance Student Experts’ Pool was established to promote student engagement in quality assurance and to contribute to the improvement of higher education provision in the European Higher Education Area. It aims to develop ESU as a crucial partner for quality assurance agencies in Europe and to play a leading role in quality assurance policy developments.
For these purposes, members of pool are trained and involved in the policy work of ESU. Pool members can also be nominated to participate in quality assurance procedures e.g. reviews, thus promoting student participation in quality assurance processes across Europe. Through the pool, ESU also undertakes capacity-building and development activities in quality assurance in higher education on the national level, in cooperation with the National Students’ Union members of ESU.
During the past years, ESU has organized several trainings at the European level. So far, ESU has nominated over 100 students to take part in various international external evaluations organized by different quality assurance agencies all over Europe. Most notably, ESU is cooperating with the Institutional Evaluation Programme of the European University Association (EUA) and is nominating students for external reviews of quality assurance agencies for the purposes of determining membership in the European Association of Quality Assurance (ENQA) and/or inclusion in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR).
Benefits and responsibilities
Membership in the pool enables the sharing of information, knowledge and good practices relating to QA in higher education, enhancing your skills and knowledge and supporting you in your work in the quality assurance at home. Calls administered by ESU for participation in quality assurance reviews and other events are sent to pool members only.
Benefits and opportunities of being a member of the ESU QA Pool:
• Learning about European higher education systems and European level QA policy-making (e.g. Bologna Process);
• Involvement in quality assurance processes at programme, institutional, national and international levels (e.g. evaluations of institutions and quality assurance agencies);
• Opportunities to participate on behalf of ESU at external events and governing bodies (e.g. in the steering committee of the European Quality Assurance Forum);
• Networking possibilities;
• Opportunity to participate in specially designed international trainings for reviewers;
• Opportunity to develop transferable skills, such as communication and interviewing skills.
Tasks and responsibilities that can be expected from pool members include:
• Sharing knowledge and experiences in quality assurance;
• Engaging in discussion about topics in quality assurance and/or student involvement;
• Acting as multiplier agents in their respective countries;
• Participating in reviews;
• Disseminating articles and other documents relating to quality assurance among student experts in QA at national and international level;
• Contributing towards the preparation of meetings and training sessions;
• Giving feedback on reports, ESU policy papers, or similar;
• Informing the pool about any quality assurance-related event at international level;
• Promoting the ESU student experts’ pool on quality assurance;
• Identifying themselves as members of the pool;
• Furthering student participation in quality assurance.
• Pool members participating in any activity that could imply any remuneration will be subjected to ESU financial regulations and the ESU QA pool solidarity policy will apply (please see the Members’ Agreement).
Selection
In the selection process, we aim to ensure an adequate balance of participants by country and region in Europe, study field, level of study and type of higher education, as well as a balance of participants of each gender, according to ESU’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy.
Current members of the pool are invited to apply as well, if they wish to continue their membership in the pool.
Criteria for selection:
• Registered higher education student (at any level) and active in the student movement and/or recently graduated (within 1 year) – only if continuing membership;
• Experience in student representation;
• Willingness to adhere to quality assurance operational procedures and commit time as necessary;
• Excellent command of English.
Looked upon favourably:
• Nomination from any ESU full, candidate or associate member organisations;
• Previous experience in various levels of quality assurance in higher education, especially participation in reviews or review-like activities;
• Ability to work in languages other than English considered as an advantage.
Application procedure
If you are interested in becoming a member of QA Pool please fill in the following application form: and submit the following documents (according to option 1 or 2 (choose one option) and 3 for all applicants) by e-mail (to qapoolsc@esu-online.org), by 31th of May 2016 at 12:00 CET.
1. For those who are applying for the first time:
– Please fill in all fields in the application form;
– Nomination letter (optional).
2. For those who have applied for in QA Pool membership in Summer 2015 (both for those who were selected and those who were not):
– Please fill in the mandatory fields in the application form (and indicate any other information that has changed since last year (e.g. study programme);
– Nomination letter (optional for those who are not current members of the QA pool).
3. For all applicants:
– Face picture preferably in .JPEG or .PNG format (high resolution – at least 600×800 px);
– Short biography (100-150 words, fluid text).
By doing so, all applicants accept that, in the case of being selected and becoming pool members, their pictures and short biographies will be used by ESU in its website and pool promotional material. Moreover, it will be understood that all applicants have read and agreed on this call and explicitly on the commitments stated under the “Benefits and responsibilities” section.
For any queries you can reach us at qapoolsc@esu-online.org. Responsible persons for this call are Beate, Hermann and José on behalf of the Steering Committee of the ESU QA Pool, and Blazhe and Cristi on behalf of the ESU Executive Committee.
