03 March 2018

IQAA representatives took part in the 5th UNESCO Regional Consultation Meeting for Western Europe in cooperation with the Swiss Accreditation and Quality Assurance Agency

IQAA representatives took part in the fifth UNESCO Regional Consultation Meeting for Western Europe in cooperation with the Swiss Accreditation and Quality Assurance Agency. The meeting took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on February 15-16, 2018.

The main topic of the conference was "The role of quality assurance in higher education: challenges, developments and trends". UNESCO, in collaboration with regional and global partners will organize the International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Paris, France, fall 2018. A series of regional events are being organized in different parts of the world, the proceedings and reports of which will feed into the final Conference.

The outcomes of the meeting were the following:
• the main opportunities and challenges of development of quality assurance in higher education in the region were identified;
• the role of Higher Education and Quality Assurance in sustainable development has been reflected;
• development strategies for government bodies, Quality Assurance bodies, universities and other stakeholders in enhancement Quality Assurance to enable it to the system needs and transformations were identified as well;
• there was an exchange of quality control methods in the region and beyond;
• a regional synthesis report was developed.

The main participants of the conference were European quality assurance agencies, higher education institutions, policy makers, government bodies, companies and other stakeholders dealing with the various facets of quality in higher education.
The event was held in English.