Serbia

National Entity for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education (NEAQA)

Contact Information

Street name:

Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 2, East Wing, office: 477

Postal code and City: 11070 Belgrade
Country: Serbia
Phone/Fax: +381113130963
E-mail: office@nat.rs
Website: www.nat.rs
Introductory presentation:
NEAQA
Contact person: Janko Balšić
Function of contact person: Secretary
Founding year: 2018
Legal status:
Nonprofit state agency
International links and membership:  

According to the Law on Higher Education 2017, NEAQA is composed of managing body, the executive body, the professional body and professional services which perform the administrative-technical tasks.

The management body of NEAQA is the Managing Board consisted of seven members, appointed by the Government, with respect to gender equality principle. It includes representatives of the Government, the Conference of Universities, the Conference of Academies of Applied Studies and Colleges of Academic Studies and members of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The student representative nominated by SCONUS is an associate member of the Board.  

The executive body of NEAQA is director.  The Director is elected and dismissed in line with the law, based on a public competition, from a line of full professors of the university who have experience in managing and assuring quality in higher education.

The professional body of NEAQA is Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance (CAQA 2018). It conducts the procedure of accreditation of higher education institutions and the study programmes, as well as the procedure of external evaluation of quality of higher education institutions – audits, in accordance with the law and prescribed procedure and standards for accreditation and for external evaluation of quality. CAQA has 17 members.

The Secretariat of NEAQA is managed by the Secretary, in accordance with the Regulations of organization and job classification. Secretariat employs 10 people. For the accreditation and audit processes NEAQA employs external experts from the three categories: (1) academics elected by the NCHE; (2) students’ representatives appointed by the student conferences and (3) labour market representatives appointed by the chamber of commerce and various professional associations.

The National Entity for Accreditation and Quality Assurance NEAQA of the Republic of Serbia is the national institution in Serbia in charge of external quality evaluation of higher education institutions. NEAQA was established as an independent body in order to foster institutional development of accreditation and quality assurance of higher education.

NEAQA’s mission is to, in cooperation with the key stakeholders, maintain and enhance the quality of higher education in Serbia in accordance with the international standards and thereby increase its competitiveness.

NEAQA’s vision is to become the main driving force for QA development in the Western Balkans and significant partner in EHEA.

NEAQA’s core process is the external quality assessment of HEIs and it has following forms:

–     Accreditation of HEIs;

–     Accreditation of study programmes;

–     Initial accreditation of HEI and study programmes;

–     External quality control – audit.