General Assemblies and Workshops

The 2024 CEENQA General Assembly and Workshop took place on May 17-18 in Baku, Azerbaijan, hosted by the Education Quality Assurance Agency (TKTA). The workshop’s theme focused on cross-border cooperation.

The event addressed various topics related to cross-border cooperation, including trends and challenges in cross-border accreditation, the impact of cross-border accreditation on the world of work and the economy, best practices for the recognition of foreign qualifications, international accreditation and strategic planning for higher education institutions (HEIs), and the legal and political framework conditions for cross-border recognition.

The presentations from the workshop can be found here.

• Trends in Internationalization and Cross-border Education: Implications for Accreditation
• The role of cross-border accreditation in enhancing quality
• CBQA – Reflections from ENQA
• RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN QUALIFICATION: Promoting the Mobility of Students and Professionals
• How can International Accreditation Contribute to Strategic Planning for HEIs?
• HAKA and the General Assembly in 2025

During the General Assembly, Vesna Dodiković-Jurković from the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) was elected as the new president, succeeding Franci Demšar from the Slovenian Quality Assurance Agency in Higher Education (NAKVIS). Additionally, the (re)election for four board members took place, resulting in the election of Vesna Dodiković-Jurković, Péter Levente Lakatos, Dinçay Köksal, and Hasan Ali Bicak as board members.

The 2024 General Assembly successfully conducted key elections, approved strategic initiatives, and financial matters, and made important decisions for CEENQA’s future. Overall, the assembly’s outcomes reflect a strong commitment to advancing CEENQA’s objectives and enhancing its network.

Our yearly General Assembly & Workshop took place on 2/3 June 2023 in Astana, Kazkhstan, kindly hosted by our member agency IAAR.

The workshop titled “People and Culture in QA Agencies” dealt with various topics related to HR management and staff development, ranging from general questions on the strategic level to specific good practices on how to support staff and create a productive and welcoming working environment. It was opened by an insightful speech of the Kazakh minister for science and higher education, Sayasat Nurbek, who explained current opportunities and internationalisation efforts of higher education in Kazakhstan. The workshop featured presentations by the INQAAHE Immediate Past President, EQAR’s deputy director and two members of the CEENQA community. In a dedicated panel discussion, we debated the consequences of digitalisation for HR management and how agencies could react to these developments.

You can find all of the workshop presentations below.
Sayasat Nurbek: Opportunities and internationalisation efforts of higher education in Kazakhstan
Susanna Karakhanyan: Higher education core values and the role of value satisfaction in QA capacity building
Melinda Szabó: ESG perspectives, human resources and processes for internal QA
Vesna Dodiković-Jurković: Developments in HR management in QA agencies
Nataša Kramar: Good practices in staff development – a NAKVIS case-study
Liia Lauri: Development of digital competence of QA staff
Nataliia Stukalo: Digitalisation of QA and its impact on the working environment
Erik Martijnse: Lessons learned from Covid-19

On 3 June, we met for our annual General Assembly and elected Simona Lache (ARACIS, Romania) and Benjamin Muhamedbegović (HEA, Bosnia and Herzegovina) for a second, Ulkar Sattarova (TKTA, Azerbaijan) and Diane Freiberger (FIBAA, Germany) for their first term on the board. Vesna Dodiković-Jurković was elected as CEENQA’s new Vice-President. Furthermore, we welcome our new members: STAR, Turkey (full member), IKCA, Kazakhstan (full member) and HEC North Syria (observer).

CEENQA’s annual General Assembly and Workshop took place on 23/24 September in Istanbul, generously hosted by the Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs in Turkey (EPDAD).

The workshop on 23 September dealt with  the topic “Independence of quality assurance agencies” and featured presentations from the president of ENQA, a representative of the European University Association, academia and members of the CEENQA community. You can find most of the workshop presentations below:
Franci Demšar: Independence in the public sector
Enora Bennetot Pruvot: University Autonomy in Europe: the EUA Scorecard
Douglas Blackstock: Agencies, independence and their relationship with the ESG
Maja Milas: Challenging Formal and Actual Independence of QA agencies – CEENQA study

The General Assembly on 24 September took some important decisions: Franci Demšar (NAKVIS, Slovenia) was re-elected for a second term as president of CEENQA, Dinçay Köksal (EPDAD, Turkey), Péter Levente Lakatos (MAB, Hungary) and Vesna Dodiković-Jurković (ASHE, Croatia) were newly elected to the board. The Turkish National Society of Assessment and Accreditation of Pharmacy Education (ECZAKDER) was welcomed as CEENQA’s newest member. Moreover, two agencies were expelled from the association: ARSA (Russia) due to non-compliance with its financial obligations and NCPA (Russia) as a clear sign that CEENQA opposes the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and considers it a violation of the fundamental values of the European Higher Education Area.

 

On 13 October 2021, CEENQA’s yearly General Assembly and the accompanying workshop took place.

During the General Assembly, Olgun Cicek (YÖDAK, Northern Cyprus) was elected CEENQA’s new Vice-President. Simona Lache (ARACIS, Romania) and Benjamin Muhamedbegovic (HEA, Bosnia and Herzegovina) were elected new board members.

The workshop on “Online evaluations and external quality assurance” dealt with the changes to evaluation procedures brought along by the pandemic. Based on the experiences of the agencies in various European countries, it was discussed what lessons have been learned, what can be improved to adapt to changed circumstances and how quality assurance procedures will be conducted in the future.

You can find the presentations of the workshop here:
Anca Prisacariu: Adapting external quality assurance processes to an online format
Nataliia Stukalo: QA in pandemic times: Lessons learnt by NAQA (Ukraine)
Klemen Subic: CEENQA Guidelines for distance evaluation
Jolanta Silka: The importance of feedback and communication on the online evaluations

The annual meetings of CEENQA this year took place on 17 July 2020. Due to the ongoing pandemic and for the first time in the history of CEENQA, these meetings were held as a web conference.

23 member agencies participated in the General Assembly and discussed CEENQA’s activities during the past year as well as the network’s plans for the future. Two new member agencies joined CEENQA – NAQA from Ukraine and ECBE from Belgium, which means that CEENQA now consists of an unprecedented 41 agencies from 26 countries!

The member agencies re-elected Franci Demsar (NAKVIS), Jolanta Silka (AIKA/AIC) and Stefan Handke (ACQUIN) for a second term on the CEENQA board, while Ibrahim Durak from TEPDAD was elected as a new board member. Franci Demsar (NAKVIS) was elected CEENQA president for a two year term.

The GA thanked the outgoing CEENQA president Cristina Ghitulica for her dedicated work during her presidency and her successful efforts in promoting the network and its vision.

During the workshop, Galina Motova (NCPA) presented the results of a survey on the influence of COVID-19 on quality assurance agencies. Afterwards, the participating agencies discussed the latest developments, activities and events in their agencies and shared their experiences and best practices regarding the challenges imposed by the ongoing pandemic.