Database of External QA Results (DEQAR)

DEQAR is the Database of External Quality Assurance Results from activities performed by EQAR-registered quality assurance agencies. DEQAR not only collects their reports and decisions but also helps to understand reports in their context by describing the national QA frameworks of the European Higher Education Area countries.

• Check out the DEQAR Essential Info page outlining the whys, hows and for whoms of the database.

Throughout 2024, EQAR worked on two main developments in DEQAR; extending the database with information on other providers and micro credentials and the new version of the Application Programming Interface (API).

Other providers and micro credentials in DEQAR

In 2024 EQAR continued its efforts to expand DEQAR by incorporating information on other providers and micro credentials assessed through methodologies aligned with the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG).

After several rounds of feedback from various stakeholders – including testing the system with four QA agencies, conducting two meetings with the IMINQA Working Group (comprising representatives from the MoES and QA agencies), presenting at a webinar for ENIC NARICs, and consulting with individual experts – EQAR launched the live system at the end of March 2024. This system allows all EQAR-registered agencies to upload reports on EQA micro credentials and alternative providers/other providers. So far, three agencies have uploaded reports on certified other providers and micro-credentials, which are available here.

In order to improve the clarity of terminology used in DEQAR, the Secretariat also introduced a Glossary of terms and symbols used in the database on the website. The Glossary is available here.

EQAR is launching the new version of its Application Programming Interface (API)

Following the recent expansion of the database to include information on certified micro-credentials and alternative/other providers, EQAR is set to launch a new version of its API.

To prepare EQAR-registered quality assurance agencies for this update, EQAR organised a webinar at the end of 2024, to present the new API and its connection to the updated DEQAR data model.

The new API is scheduled to be launched on 15 March, after thorough testing with quality assurance agencies. It will operate in parallel with the existing version of the API until the end of 2025, at which point only the new API will remain in use.

DEQAR milestone

In 2024 DEQAR reached a milestone of 100 000 reports, uploaded by 56 EQAR-registered quality assurance agencies, covering several thousand higher education institutions and alternative/other providers within and beyond the European Higher Education Area  (EHEA).

Reports published on DEQAR are accessible here.

Integration with Digital Credentials

Accredited credentials are checked against the accreditation database that is part of the (Europass) Qualifications Dataset Register (QDR). DEQAR data are automatically exported to the QDR, enabling institutions to issue EDC credentials that can be verified as accredited. The interface to Europass Digital Credentials for the European Learning Model version 3 (ELMv3) has been updated, and the export is made by default. As of 2024, programme accreditations from DEQAR are accurately represented and have been included in the data export too.

Reports

By the end of 2024 the total number of reports in DEQAR was 109 117. The total number of reports uploaded during 2024 was 14 130.

Agencies

Throughout the year, 48 (out of 57) EQAR registered agencies uploaded their reports in the database, the same number as last year.

Higher education institutions (HEIs)

Newly added reports in DEQAR in 2024 covered 1 772 HEIs based in 41 EHEA countries, and 113 HEIs based in 35 non EHEA countries.

Coverage

DEQAR had significant coverage of 33 higher education systems by the end of 2024: Austria, Belgium (Flemish Community), Belgium (French Community), Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom (Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales)

Note on “significant coverage”: In these systems, DEQAR includes reports on more than half of the higher education institutions, compared to the total number according to the European Tertiary Education Register (ETER) or national lists provided to EQAR. For very small higher education systems (< 5 higher education institutions), significant coverage is considered if the higher education institution(s) is/are the dominant institution(s) in the system and a large proportion of the institution(s) is covered, i.e. not only a small number of programmes.

Upload methods

In 2024, the main mode of upload of report was CSV (7 751), followed by the API (4 815) and manual upload (1 564).

The following tables provide a detailed breakdown by agency and type of reports.