New Achievements in the Quality Assessment in Higher Education

As recognised by the leading experts of the European Higher Education Area in the seminar “AIKA in the European Higher Education Area: Achievements and Challenges in Quality Assurance”, organised by the Academic Information Centre (AIC), which took place on Friday, over the past few years, Latvia has made progress in the quality assessment in higher education.

This was one of the largest seminars on the quality assurance in higher education, which brought together the representatives of the European and Latvian competent authorities – the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), the Education Department of the Council of Europe, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the Ministry of Education and Science, the Rectors’ Council, the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia, the Student Union of Latvia, and the Association of Latvian Colleges.

“As a result of a positive quality assessment of higher education of Latvia, we have become a member of the ENQA and the EQAR, which is a great motivation for us to continue to pursue our efforts by developing a dialogue with the higher education institutions, students, and sectoral experts to ensure the competitiveness of higher education of Latvia”, points out Baiba Ramiņa, the Chairperson of the Board of the AIC. 

The Quality Agency for Higher Education (AIKA) is a department of the AIC, which, in the past two years, has ensured not only the quality assessment, but also quality enhancement and the organisation of seminars and conferences by involving all stakeholders, as well as participated in the exchange of experience at international level, in order to improve the quality assessment system and the performance of the agency.

“I am convinced that being part of the European quality assurance-community will support AIC in enlarging the trust in Latvian higher education. Besides that, internationalisation will further improve the quality of Latvian universities, to the benefit of students, staff and the Latvian society”, emphasises Karl Dittrich, the President of EQAR.

In order for the AIKA to apply for a full membership in the ENQA and the EQAR registration, the agency had to comply with a number of requirements, including the requirement of two years of active operation since the beginning of its activity, and to demonstrate the experience in organising the external quality assessment process in compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area.

The AIKA commenced its activity on 1 July 2015 as an agency of the Academic Information Centre (AIC). It lies within the competence of the AIKA to organise the accreditation of the institutions of higher education and study directions, and the licensing of study programmes, as well as to fulfil other tasks related to the quality assurance in higher education.

The seminar was held within the framework of the European Social Funds project “Support for Meeting the Requirements Set for EQAR Agency”.

Seminar presentations:

The Role of EQAR in Quality Enhancement of Higher Education

Trust Building in the European Higher Education Area

Trends and Challenges in the European Higher Education Area