Annual Baltic Meeting of Quality Assurance Agencies

On 4-5 September 2019, the representatives of the Quality Agency for Higher Education of the Academic Information Centre took part in the annual Baltic Meeting of the Quality Assurance Agencies, and quality assurance agencies from all Baltic States participated in this meeting: the Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (EKKA), the Lithuanian Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (SKVC), the Latvian Quality Agency for Higher Education (AIKA) as well as the State Education Quality Service (IKVD) and the Lithuanian National Agency for School Evaluation (NMVA). The goal of this annual meeting is to share experience in issues regarding external quality assessment. In 2018, this meeting took place in Latvia.

Within the meeting, the representatives of the agencies introduced the participants with changes and current events that took place both higher and vocational education over the last year. A participant from each agency shared their experience in digitalisation of and for quality assurance. They presented both internal and external electronic systems and tools used by each quality agency, including document management systems, tools for the exchange of information with higher education institutions, special applications for student feedback gathering, etc.

The representatives of the Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (EKKA), the Lithuanian Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (SKVC), and the Quality Agency for Higher Education (AIKA) introduced other participants with trends in internationalisation in higher education in each state, addressing issues such as the definition of internationalisation, expectations for higher education institutions in respect to attraction of foreign students, the way interests of students are protected, etc.

The meeting continued with group discussions about topics such as – training for experts, including good practice for training local and foreign experts; – assessment of compliance, including division of responsibility between the agency and reviewers; – challenges during the review process, including changes during the process.

The next meeting of the Baltic Quality Assurance Agencies will be organised in Estonia, autumn 2020.