Organisational Development and Finances

All parties to the European Cultural Convention, signed in Paris on 19 December 1954, that are full members of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), may become Governmental Members.

In 2023, three new members joined EQAR; Iceland, Scotland and Sweden. This means that EQAR, by the time of the General Assembly in May, had 45 governmental members or 43 countries* that were involved in the overall governance of EQAR.

* There are two ways to count EQAR members; the number of of governmental members or the number of countries. This can lead to a higher number if the country is divided into two (or more) separate entities, as is the case for Belgium and for the UK.

The EQAR General Assembly was held in Stockholm on 10 May, in conjunction with the BFUG meeting, hosted by  the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research, in the framework of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Apart from the yearly recurring agenda items such as the accounts, the budget, the plan of work and the annual report, there was also a statutory revision (see below), a revision of the membership fees (indexation to account for inflation, effective as from 2024), various elections and the official handover from the outgoing Director, Colin Tück, to the new Director Magalie Soenen. There was also a Thematic Session about the QA FIT project (presentation of the Analysis of the QA FIT Ministry survey followed by a discussion).

The following elections took place:

• President
  Stéphane Lauwick was elected as President of EQAR for a three-year mandate, starting on 1 July 2023. Stéphane is EQAR’s second elected president after Karl Dittrich, who finished his second (and last possible) term at the end of June 2023.
• Register Committee
  The GA approved the nominations of the Register Committee, which included seven re-nominations and three new ones.
  Sandra Bezjak was nominated by ENQA replacing Izabela Suika as of July 2023. Izabela Suika served on the Register Committee since 2017.
  Inga Lapina was nominated by BUSINESS EUROPE replacing Anita Līce as of July 2023.  Anita Līce served on the Register Committee since 2014.
  Lewis Purser was nominated by EUA replacing Jacques Lanares as of July 2023. Jacques Lanares served on the Register Committee since 2019.
• Observers to the Register Committee
  The GA newly elected Slovakia and Kazakhstan and re-elected Cyprus and Slovenia as observers to the Register Committee as of July 2023, for a two-year mandate. The outgoing observers were Germany, Luxembourg and Romania.
• The Board
  The GA confirmed the founding members’ representatives on the Board and took note of the resignation of John Edwards (EURASHE).
  – Goran Daković (ENQA)
  – Jakub Grodecki (EURASHE)
  – Maria Kelo (EUA)
  – Horia Onita (ESU)
  According to the agreed rotation, the Board assumed the following functions as per 1 June 2023, with Karl Dittrich as President (until the end of his mandate, followed by Stéphane Lauwick as of 1 July 2023):
  – Goran Daković (ENQA) – Vice-President
  – Jakub Grodecki (EURASHE) – Treasurer

• Observers to the Board
  Following the statutory revision, the GA appointed two governmental observers to the Board; France and Norway.
• Appeals Committee
  The GA elected the members of the Appeals Committee for a four-year term, from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2027. The only newly elected (deputy-) member was Tatjana Volkova, replacing Pedro Teixeira who resigned in 2023. All the others were re-elected.

Read more about the General Assembly in the relevant news item

See under Annexes “EQAR data” the full composition of the various EQAR bodies in 2023.

The last time the statutes  had been revised was in 2017, in order to to allow for the implementation of the “office” of an EQAR President.

The 2023 review of the Statutes was required to align them with the new Companies and Associations Code (CAC), which entered into force in 2019; the review had to be completed in 2023 at the latest. At the same time, following the external evaluation of 2021, a few specific revisions to the EQAR Statutes were introduced to provide for more clarity in the structures as well as to improve stakeholder involvement. The following noteworthy changes were introduced:

• In order to align more closely with the established EHEA structures, also in light of the proposed EHEA Statutes, specify that EHEA countries (and sub-divisions where applicable) are eligible to become governmental members. [Art. 6]
• Reflect the established practice that the Council of Europe, the European Commission, UNESCO and the EHEA Secretariat are observers to the GA rather than members. [Art. 6 & 11]
  Explicitly provide for the possibilities to hold the General Assembly via Zoom etc. and to have decisions taken by written consent. [Art. 11]
• Clarify that the Board members are representatives of the E4 organisations, remove the limitation how long individuals can be on the Board and simplify the nomination process so that E’s can change their representatives, e.g. when staff changes, without waiting for the next GA. [Art. 12]
• In order to allow governmental members to better follow all aspects of EQAR’s work, include two observers on the Board; as it has not always been easy to find enough countries interested, the observers on the RC would be reduced to three in turn. [Art. 12 & 15]
• Describe the Board’s actual role better and more precisely. [Art. 13]
• Reflect the current arrangement where ENQA decides on membership based on EQAR registration and hence after the Register Committee has made a decision. [Art. 20]

Most of the revisions were adopted by the GA on 10 May, but there were a few remaining (small or editorial) changes, which the GA delegated to be decided by the board. These changes were discussed and agreed by the Board, sent out to the members of the GA and approved during a postponed Extraordinary General Assembly that was held online on 13 October.

At the first attempt of holding an EGA (on 25 September), the EGA came one governmental member short to reach the required quorum for adopting statutory changes. That same day, members were invited to a postponed Extraordinary General Assembly, with the same agenda, on 13 October. At this postponed Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA), a quorum was not necessary and the revision of the statutes (and the revision of the Rules of Procedure) were both approved.

The Members’ Dialogue usually covers recent policy developments in quality assurance as well as EQAR’s current and future activities. Thanks to the informal setting, it also serves as a forum for exchange and networking among governments on issues related to quality assurance.

EQAR’s 13th Members’ Dialogue took place in Granada on on 9-10 November, hosted by the University of Granada.

The two main topics, the QA-FIT Focus Group and the EQAR Strategy, were covered extensively, generating fruitful discussions and insightful comments from participants. Other topics also passed the revue, ranging from the European Degree to the European Approach for QA of Joint programmes, the QA of micro-credentials, the European Digital Credentials for Learning (including a DEQAR connection) and the European Blockchain Initiative (EBSI), using DEQAR data.

Read more about the Members’ Dialogue in the relevant news-item on our website.

EQAR had several staff changes in 2023. Our Director, Colin Tück, stepped down in May, after 15 years of working for EQAR and was succeeded by Magalie Soenen.

More about Colin’s time at EQAR.

At the end of the 2023 our Deputy Director, Melinda Szabó, left EQAR after a decade of working for EQAR. Melinda joined the Secretariat in March 2013 as Project Officer. Since then she became Policy Analyst, Senior Policy Analyst and Deputy Director. Melinda built up a wealth of QA knowledge during these years and contributed to many of the EQAR milestones.

Towards the end of the year, Giorgi Munjishvili was recruited as Policy and Project Officer, with as starting date 1 January 2024. He was recruited to support the Register (analyse applications and change reports, review & update information, guide agencies), to work on the maintenance and development of DEQAR and also to do project related work and desk research.

The total Secretariat staff at the end of 2023 remained at 5,4 FTE.

The EQAR Secretariat moved into new office premises in December, after having been housed for the last six years at the top floor of the Neth-ER offices.

The new office is located in the Mundo Trône* building (also home of  ENQA and the Lifelong Learning Platform) and is very close to the old office.

New address:
Nijverheidsstraat 10 Rue de l’Industrie
1000 Brussels, Belgium

* Mundo Trône is an eco-managed office and meeting center dedicated to associations, NGOs and social enterprises. They host around 30 organisations working on different issues: youth, education, development, LGBTQ, health, disability, etc. It offers private professional workspaces, meeting rooms and various other services.

The year 2023 resulted in a deficit of EUR 111 773,13. A deficit of around EUR 87 000 was anticipated last year, however, the larger deficit is a result of continued inflation, increasing staff costs (automatic indexation in Belgium and appointment of new director), costs related to external travel and also a relocation to new premises.

EQAR relies on a diverse funding base including annual contributions from its members (governments and European stakeholder organisations), application and listing fees paid by quality assurance agencies and occasional project grants, which currently are the Erasmus+ funding for the DEQAR CONNECT Project, QA FIT, IMINQA and the TPG LRC CoRE Projects.

• Financial accounts (detail)
• Auditor’s Report