NEAQA’s Acting Director Prof. Ana Šijački, PhD and Secretary-General Janko Balšić participated in the ENQA General Assembly in Dublin, held from October 26 to 27, 2023.
The assembly was organised in cooperation with the Irish agency QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland) on the premises of the “Croke Park” conference centre and included over 140 delegates.
On the first day, during plenary sessions, participants had the opportunity to get in touch with the latest policy developments on the recognition of qualifications (the Global Recognition Convention and the role of the European Commission) with a focus on practice, i.e. research on the practical links between quality assurance and recognition. Afterwards, ENQA full members voted for the election of the members of the Board and the vice-president of ENQA.
The second day included breakout sessions on the following topics: Academic integrity: outcomes of the ENQA working group, Workshop on ENQA’s message to the 2024 Bologna Ministerial Conference, Workshop on the future of the ESG and the Focus group on ENQA’s targeted review methodology.
The importance of the next Ministerial Conference on the Bologna Process was particularly highlighted, bearing in mind that the achievements of the Bologna Process will be discussed, and the strategic direction for the next period within the European Higher Education Area will be determined.
NEAQA’s Acting Director and Secretary-General actively participated in the mentioned workshops, especially in the context of the future development of ESG, where, together with several colleagues from other European agencies, they pointed out the challenges related to the implementation of specific standards (especially regarding with ESG 3.4, a standard concerning thematic analyses).