The Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG)
The Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) provide the framework for internal and external quality assurance. They were adopted at the EHEA Ministerial Conference in 2015.
ENQA worked in partnership with the rest of the E4 Group (EUA, EURASHE and ESU) as well as other stakeholder organisations (Education International, Business Europe), and with EQAR to draft the ESG 2015. The E4 Group was also the authors of the original version of the ESG in 2005.
Implementing quality assurance in line with the ESG is one of the key commitments of the Bologna Process. As such, the ESG provide the basis for enhancing trust, mobility and recognition between higher education systems.
The ESG are divided into three parts:
- Part 1: internal quality assurance
- Part 2: external quality assurance
- Part 3: quality assurance agencies
The ESG are designed to be applied to all higher education, regardless of place or mode of delivery. The Standards set out the agreed and accepted practice, while the Guidelines describe how the standards might be implemented, however this will vary depending on the context. Further guidance on the scope and use of the ESG is provided in the introduction to the document. Furthermore, in 2020, the E4 Group issued a statement clarifying the continued relevance and applicability of the ESG in the changing higher education context. It covers issues such as the purpose, focus and interpretation of the ESG.
For ENQA, the ESG are of particular importance as ENQA membership is only open to quality assurance agencies that demonstrate their compliance with the ESG. The ENQA Agency Reviews use Parts 2 and 3 of the ESG as the criteria for the review process, and the resulting report is used as the basis for decisions on ENQA membership (taken by the ENQA Board) and EQAR listing (taken by the EQAR Register Committee).
Separately from the agency reviews, ENQA supports its members in meeting the expectations of the ESG through a variety of projects, publications, events and working groups.
The following unofficial translations of the ESG are available. Please note that the translations have not been verified by ENQA and that the translating parties bear the responsibility of inaccuracies. The original English remains the official document in all cases.
ESG IN WELSH: Translated by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).
ESG IN ALBANIAN: Translated by the Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA)
ESG IN BASQUE: Translated by Unibasq
ESG IN BOSNIAN: Translated by Suzana Trubajić within the framework of the EU-funded twinning project, “Strengthening Institutional Capacities for Quality Assurance”.
ESG IN BULGARIAN: Translated by the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency of Bulgaria
ESG IN CATALAN: Translated by AQU Catalunya
ESG IN CROATIAN: Translated by the Agency for Science and Higher Education
ESG IN DUTCH: Translation commissioned by The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
ESG IN FINNISH: Translated by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC)
ESG IN FRENCH: Translated by Réseau FrAQ
ESG IN GALICIAN: Translated by ACSUG
ESG IN GEORGIAN: Translated by Erasmus Georgia
ESG IN GERMAN: Translated by the German Rectors’ Conference
ESG IN HUNGARIAN: Copyright Hungarian Translation (C) OFI in cooperation with the Hungarian Accreditation Committee
ESG IN IRISH (GAEILGE): Translated by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)
ESG IN ITALIAN: Translated by the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI)
ESG IN JAPANESE: Translated by the National institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation
ESG IN KAZAKH: Translated by the Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education
ESG IN LATVIAN: Translated by the Academic Information Centre
ESG IN LITHUANIAN: Translated by the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (SKVC)
ESG IN MACEDONIAN: Translated within the framework of the EU Twinning Project “Further support to the implementation of the National Qualifications Framework” for the Ministry of Education and Science of North Macedonia
ESG IN MONGOLIAN: Translated by the Mongolian National Council for Education Accreditation (MNCEA)
ESG IN ROMANIAN: Translated by the Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education
ESG IN RUSSIAN: Translated by the National Centre of Public Accreditation
ESG IN RUSSIAN: Translated by the Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education
ESG IN SLOVAK: Translated by Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic
ESG IN SLOVENIAN: Translated by the Slovenian Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
ESG IN SPANISH: Translated by the Aragon Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation
ESG IN SPANISH: Translated by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain
ESG IN TURKISH: Translated by Metin Toprak, Istanbul University, Deniz Us, the Council of Higher Education, Mehmet Sengul, the Council of Higher Education
ESG IN UKRAINIAN: Translated by the British Council
Additional resources
E4 statement on the ESG in the changing higher education landscape (2020)
A report with considerations on how the ESG apply to e-learning (2018, produced by the ENQA Working Group on Quality Assurance and e-learning)
A report with considerations on how the ESG apply to work-based learning (produced by the WEXHE project)
The ESG 2005 (original version, superseded by the ESG 2015)
A comparative analysis of the ESG 2015 and the ESG 2005 (produced by the EQUIP project)
The Tirana Ministerial Communiqué of May 2024 gave the authors of the ESG the mandate to revise the document.
It is expected that the final text of the ESG 2027 should be approved by the Bologna Follow-up Group at their meeting in autumn 2026, with no further changes to be made before adoption by EHEA Ministers at the Ministerial Conference in Romania/Moldova in spring 2027.
The revision is being coordinated by a Steering Committee composed of one representative from each of the seven primary and cooperating authors. The ENQA Director serves as secretary to the Steering Committee. The process will include consultation with all key stakeholders. It also draws on the outcomes of the QA-FIT project, which gathered evidence to inform the revision.
Public consultation
On 17 November 2025, the Steering Committee published a first complete draft of the ESG 2027 and invites feedback from all stakeholders. The consultation package consists of:
- The full draft text of the ESG 2027 (pdf)
- An explanatory note (pdf)
- Full text of the survey (pdf)
- Link to feedback survey (weblink)
Input to the consultation should be provided through the dedicated survey. The deadline for responses is 9 January 2026. Feedback submitted through other channels (including by email to Steering Committee members/authoring organisations) will not be accepted.
The survey allows feedback to be given on each standard of the ESG, as well as on each section as a whole. Respondents are not required to give feedback on all standards. Note that the survey should be completed in one sitting – it is not possible to close the survey and return where you left off.
Please keep in mind that this is the first draft of the ESG 2027 intended for stakeholders to provide input to the revision. In addition to addressing the input received, the ESG Steering Committee will continue working on the coherence, consistency and wording of the text prior to finalisation of the drafting process.