The President of the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education, Professor Pericles A. Mitkas, participated in the 2024 ENQA Members' Forum, which took place on 18-19 April in Hanover, Germany. The event was organised in cooperation with the German Central Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation (ZEvA).
The Members’ Forum programme addressed the topic of “Quality Assurance and Change”, through keynote speeches and contributions from members and affiliates. Breakout sessions provided an opportunity for information and discussion on ENQA activities and current developments in quality assurance in the European Area. A meeting of the General Assembly also took place.
Among the issues discussed was the role of AI in quality assurance, given its potential impact on higher education, from learning and teaching to administrative processes and research. Questions to be answered include whether AI will be a good or bad tool, how accreditation bodies will support institutions in the appropriate use of AI technologies and how they will facilitate their own external quality assurance activities.
The President of HAHE, Professor Pericles A. Mitkas, represented the Authority at the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) 2023, which took place in Aveiro, Portugal, from 23 to 25 November 2023, and was hosted by the University of Aveiro. This year's forum was entitled "Internationalisation in a changing world. New trends and challenges for quality assurance" and provided an opportunity to discuss the possibilities, challenges, and best practices for quality assurance in an increasingly internationalised context.
The EQAF is an annual landmark event in quality assurance and is organised every November by EUA (European University Association), ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), ESU (European Students' Union) and EURASHE (European Association of Higher Education Institutions). This year's conference was attended by over 450 participants from the higher education quality assurance community from Europe and beyond.
The Hellenic Authority for Higher Education organised a workshop for the staff of Quality Assurance Units of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) on Friday 24 November 2023 in Athens, at the Titania Hotel. 51 executives from all over Greece participated in the workshop.
The workshop entitled “The re-accreditation of the Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) of HEIs” was held in 2 parts. In the first part, the Director General of HAHE, Dr. Christina Besta, presented the critical success factors of re-accreditation, highlighting the key points of the quality standard and the significant changes from the previous one, the accreditation proposal as well as the effective organisation of the Quality Assurance Unit. Dr. Besta referred, among others, to the organisational identity of the QAU, the common problems observed in the accreditation proposals submitted by QAUs, issues related to the External Evaluation and Accreditation Panels (EEAPs) and the desirable skills of quality assurance staff. Finally, Mrs. Besta discussed in detail with the participants and answered questions.
In the second part, Dr. Nikolaos Georgiadis (Head of the Directorate of Information Systems and Documentation) and Mrs. Theoni Petropoulou (Head of the Department of Development and Management of Applications & Infrastructure) presented HAHE’s information systems as well as issues related to the quality of HEIs data. More specifically, they presented the applications of the National Information System For Quality Assurance (NISQA) for HEIs (Quality Data Management System, Graduate Tracking, Register of Institutions and Accreditation Management System), as well as issues related to data collection from the institutions.
Dr. Yiannis Kalogerakis, CEO of JMK Anthropocentric Corporate Training and Development, was also a speaker at the workshop, discussing the anthropocentric approach to quality and the value of people in every step and stage of quality assurance.
The President of the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education (HAHE), Prof. Pericles A. Mitkas and the Director-General Dr. Christina Besta represented HAHE at ENQA’s General Assembly meeting, which took place on 25-27 October in Dublin, Ireland. The event was organised in cooperation with the QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland), the Irish Higher Education Authority.
The issues presented and discussed in plenary and breakout sessions included, among others: the practical links between quality assurance and skills recognition, academic integration, the future of the ESG (Principles and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area), but also cross-border quality assurance and especially outside the European Higher Education Area.
In particular, the General Assembly, held on 26th October, confirmed by unanimous vote, the renewal of HAHE’s ENQA membership until April 2028 and awarded the relevant certificate, thus completing the process of HAHE’s external evaluation by the European Agency.
ENQA President, Mr. Douglas Blackstock awards the certificate to HAHE President, Prof. Pericles A. Mitkas
The ENQA Board decided to reconfirm HAHE’s membership in ENQA for a period of five years, starting from 19-04-2023. The Board concluded that HAHE complies with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG 2015), following the approval of HAHE's application for inclusion on the EQAR, and therefore fulfils the criteria for membership according to Article 6, par. 1 of ENQA's Rules of Procedure.
The ENQA Board welcomed HAHE’s effort and the progress made since the completion of the review process and encourages the Authority to continue its work with the same commitment and due diligence, taking into account the recommendations of the external review report. The President of ENQA, Mr Douglas Blackstock, congratulated, in his letter, the President and the Authority on the final outcome.
HAHE will submit a follow-up report by September 2024 in accordance with the procedure required for all ENQA members.
The 2022 External Evaluation Report (here)
