The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) are the basis for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The revised version of the ESG was approved by the EHEA Ministerial Conference in May 2015.

The revised ESG include a number of updated and amended elements that will undoubtedly bring implementation challenges for users of the ESG, namely higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies. Quality assurance in general, and the ESG in particular, are a recognised driver in enhancing the attractiveness and competitiveness of European higher education. Yet, previous studies (e.g. MAP-ESG, Bologna progress reports) have shown that inconsistent implementation has been a major issue.

The EQUIP project aims at Enhancing Quality through Innovative Policy & Practice in European higher education by supporting and promoting a consistent, efficient and innovative embedding of the revised ESG at grass-root level. The project will identify the challenges and work collaboratively with all stakeholders and policy-makers to propose, share and discuss the applicability of new solutions.

The project will:

• Produce an analytical report highlighting the innovative aspects of the revised ESG;
• Publish and promote the revised ESG to the entire higher education community;
• Facilitate the use of the revised ESG through multi-level peer-learning groups with five training events including webinars;
• Identify and promote innovative ways to apply the revised ESG by consulting all higher education actors;
• Highlight changes to be made in quality assurance at various levels with a study on implementation challenges, solutions and policy impact;
• Put forward European-level policy recommendations to stakeholder groups to feed into the discussions leading up to the 2018 EHEA Ministerial Conference.

•  Comparative analysis of the ESG 2015 and ESG 2005 (1.8 MB)
•  Different modes of delivery - Dual Education Programmes (1.7 MB)
•  Enhancing quality of programmes: connecting internal and external QA (0.2 MB)
•  EQUIP workshops & webinars flyer (0.2 MB)
•  ESG 2015 what has changed and what does it mean for the QA professionals? (0.7 MB)
•  ESG 2015 – What has changed and what does it mean for QA practitioners? (0.5 MB)
•  ESG 2015: Enhancing quality of programmes – connecting IQA and EQA (1.0 MB)
•  ESG review 2016 of AAQ (0.1 MB)
•  FAIR project: Recognition & ESG 1.4 (0.7 MB)
•  How will external QA change as a result of the adoption of ESG 2015? - key challenges identified by QA agencies (0.2 MB)
•  How will external QA change as a result of the ESG 2015? (0.2 MB)
•  Institution's responsibility: Supporting teaching staff (0.4 MB)
•  New modes of delivery… e-learning (1.9 MB)
•  New tools for new realities: Intro to the revised European Standards and Guidelines (ESGs) for Quality Assurance (2.1 MB)
•  New tools for new realities: Student Centred Learning & the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (1.3 MB)
•  Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) (0.7 MB)
•  Student Centred Learning from the teachers’ perspective (0.8 MB)
•  Student-Centred Learning (2.1 MB)
•  Student-Centred Learning (1.6 MB)
•  The role of teachers in QA (0.4 MB)

Education International (EI) - Education International represents organisations of teachers and other education employees across the globe. It is the world’s largest federation of unions, representing thirty million education employees in about four hundred organisations... Read more

European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) - The European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) is a voluntary association of European quality assurance agencies and currently comprises 40 members and 49 affiliates. Its aim is... Read more

European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE) - EURASHE is the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education that offer professionally orientated programmes and are engaged in applied research within the Bologna cycles. EURASHE represents universities of applied sciences... Read more

European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR) - In most European countries, higher education institutions or study programmes are subject to regular external review by a quality assurance agency. The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR)... Read more

European Students’ Union (ESU) - The European Students’ Union (ESU) is an umbrella organisation of 47 National Unions of Students from 39 countries. The aim of ESU is to represent and promote the educational, social,... Read more

European University Association (EUA) - The European University Association (EUA) has over 850 members across 47 countries, making it the largest and most comprehensive organisation representing universities and national university associations in Europe. As the... Read more

Portuguese Polytechnics Coordinating Council (CCISP) - Conselho Coordenador dos Institutos Superiores Politécnicos (CCISP) Created in 1979, the Conselho Coordenador dos Institutos Superiores Politécnicos (CCISP – Portuguese Polytechnics Coordinating Council) is the body of joint coordination and... Read more

University of Oslo (UiO) - The University of Oslo (UiO) was founded in 1811 as the first in Norway. Today it is the country’s largest public institution of research and higher learning. As a classical university... Read more

Following are some of the experts involved in the project:

Johan Cloet - Johan Cloet has been the Secretary General of EURASHE in 2014-2016, which he represented in the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) and several of its working groups, such as on ‘Structural... Read more

Maria Kelo - Maria Kelo is the Director of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). Together with the Association’s President she represents ENQA in the E4 group and in... Read more

Armando Pires, Vice-President of EURASHE - Armando Pires is a graduate of Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon. He received his MSc degree in 1988 and PhD degree in 1994 in Electrical Engineering at... Read more

Bjørn Stensaker - Dr. Bjørn Stensaker is a professor of Higher Education at the University of Oslo, where he coordinates the work related to academic staff development. The research interests of Dr. Stensaker... Read more

Melinda Szabo - Melinda Szabo has been working as a Project Officer for the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) since March 2013. She studied at the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania,... Read more

Colin Tück - Colin Tück has been working for EQAR since October 2007, initially as Project Manager on behalf of its founding members (ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE). Prior to joining EQAR he... Read more

Jens Vraa-Jensen - Jens Vraa-Jensen holds a MSc in Geography from the University of Copenhagen, and has been employed by DM – the largest Danish Trade Union in Higher education and research –... Read more

Alexandre Wipf - Alexandre Wipf is the previous policy and communications officer at EURASHE. Within the secretariat he was in charge of the implementation of quality assurance related activities (policy, projects, events, representation,... Read more