The annual workshop and general assembly was in Krakow on 13-14 May 2016 at the late-14th-century building Collegium Maius of the Jagellonian University. The meeting marks the 15th anniversary of the official founding of the CEE Network, as the organization was called at the time, and which took place also in Krakow in 2001. Hosts of this meeting were the Polish University Accreditation Commission UAC and the Polish Accreditation Committee PKA. Following the workshop was a splendid dinner at Biała Różaand, in spite of the rain, a walking tour of the old market square. On Saturday afternoon, following the general assembly and lunch, participants joined a guided tour of Wavel Castle.
The workshop, with a welcome by Professor Andrzej Mania, vice-rector of the Jagellonian University, was titled “Quality Assurance of Transnational Higher Education”, a topic that has gained momentum leading up to and following the adaptation by the Ministers in Yerevan last May of the “European Approach to the Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes”. Speakers on the topic are Nora Skaburskiene, SKVC Lithuania (Presentation here); Achim Hopbach, AQ Austria (Presentation here); Fabrizio Trifiro, QAA UK (Presentation here); and Mark Frederiks, NVAO The Netherlands (Presentation here).
Resentative Olexandr Smyrnof from the soon-to-be-established accreditation committee of Ukraine was invited to the meeting. The program for the workshop is available here.
The highlights of the general assembly are
- the Latvian Quality Agency for Higher Education AIKA joining CEENQA as its 29th member
- the election of Dr. Achim Hopbach of AQ Austria and re-election of three Board members
- the adoption of a new staff-exchange scheme
- strengthened liaising with ENQA with Nora Skaburskiené joining Christina Rozsnyai on the Board of the Association
- revised application form based on “Common Values and Principles.”
- Additional information on CEENQA is available on the website www.ceenqa.org.
The Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating (IAAR) joins CEENQA.
The CEENQA membership voted on 8 February 2016 to accept IAAR, Kazakhstan, as its 28th member. IAAR is the second quality assurance agency from Kazakhstan.