DEQAR Conference / EQAR Members’ Dialogue in Madrid

From Quality to Automatic Recognition and Mobility

The DEQAR Conference was held in conjunction with the annual EQAR Members’ Dialogue and marked the end of the European Forward-Looking Cooperation Project period. During that period (November 2017 – October 2019) the DEQAR database was developed and launched, 32 quality assurance agencies uploaded (and are still doing so) over 40.000 decisions and reports, and DEQAR was promoted and talked about. Now it is time to look forward and consolidate: how can we make sure that more QAAs participate in the database, how can we further improve, make use of and promote DEQAR? These topics, among others, were discussed at the DEQAR Conference.

The event, hosted by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the Crue Universidades Españolas, took place on 7-8 October and gathered over a hundred colleagues from the field. Plenary topics during the conference ranged from “European Universities” to “Translating the ESG into practice” to “How can the European Quality Assurance Framework and DEQAR support Automatic Recognition and Mobility?” Parallel sessions evolved around 3 topics:

  • Studies and research on QA, made possible with DEQAR
  • Joining forces with DEQAR
  • European Universities and Quality Assurance

In the World Café participants could choose among 19 topics evolving around “DEQAR use cases and potential” and “current policy developments in European QA”. For quality assurance agencies there was a special Agency Hub to discuss feedback on and future needs of DEQAR.

You will find the relevant presentations / poster presentations here.
You will find the conference report here.

Participants of the conference came from many different (mostly Higher Education) backgrounds. Below you will find a breakdown of the conference participants per category:

  • DEQAR project partners: 22 (6 stakeholder partners, 1 research partner, 18 QAAs)
  • Quality assurance agencies: 27
  • ENIC NARIC representatives and other interested stakeholders representing the target groups of DEQAR: 15
  • EQAR Governmental members: 25 (representatives of ministries of higher education)
  • EQAR Stakeholder Members: 5 (ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE, Education International)
  • EQAR Permanent observers: 2 (European Commission & Bologna Secretariat)
  • EQAR statutory bodies and staff: 16