EQAR – European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education
Who are we?
The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) is the European Higher Education Area’s (EHEA) official register of quality assurance agencies that comply with the agreed Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG). EQAR aims to enhance trust and cross-border recognition. It maintains the Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR), giving access to quality assurance reports and decisions by EQAR-registered agencies.
Why we are participating in the project
The increasing demand for and offering of micro-credentials by European higher education institutions is accompanied by strong attention to their quality. Europe’s established quality assurance arrangements will need to respond to these new education opportunities within the flexible framework of the ESG. EQAR’s specific interest is how the use of the ESG for micro-credentials will affect the European framework, and to assure that EQAR and DEQAR adequately respond and continue to meet the relevant stakeholders’ needs.
Our role in the project
As an associate partner, EQAR contributes to the Steering Committee and the Working Group on QA with its specific expertise from managing the register of QA agencies and overseeing their work in line with the ESG.
Our Team
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 was involved in quality assurance-related topics as a member of the European Students’ Union’s (ESU, formerly ESIB) Bologna Process Committee. He was a member of the Executive Board of the National Union of Students in Germany (fzs) before his involvement in ESU.
Karl Dittrich
Karl Dittrich was Chair of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) until October 2017.
He started his career as a political science researcher and lecturer in Leiden, Florence and Maastricht. He chaired the Executive Board of the University of Maastricht from the 1990s until the early 2000s.
Karl Dittrich was the inaugural chairman of the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO) from 2005 to 2012. In that capacity, he also held functions on the ENQA Board and in the European Consortium for Accreditation (ECA). As VSNU Chairman, Dittrich has also sat on the Council of EUA.
