General Assembly in stately Stockholm

As is customary, the GA was organised in conjunction with the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) meeting, which was held on 11-12 May.

Welcome and Thematic Session

• Therese Ahlqvist, Deputy Director General of the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research welcomed EQAR members and pointed out that during the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, quality assurance and recognition have been at the centre of their attention. She stressed the importance of EQAR’s aim at facilitating the mutual acceptance of quality assurance decisions thus promoting mobility and recognition and added that “as we become more inter-connected through initiatives like the European Universities, the need for this has never been bigger”.
• This was followed by the thematic session “A Future-Proof Quality Assurance Framework for the EHEA” by Melinda Szabo, Deputy Director of EQAR and Maria Kelo, Director for Institutional Development of EUA. They presented an overview of the key findings from the QA-FIT surveys. This was followed by a lively discussion. This session was recorded and is available on our website.

Yearly recurring agenda items

• The annual accounts, the progress report on the work plan and the annual report (which is published on the website here) were presented by the President (Karl Dittrich) and the former Director (Colin Tück) and considered/adopted by the General Assembly.
• After the handover from the outgoing Director, Colin Tück, to the new Director Magalie Soenen, the GA adopted the work plan and the budget 2023-2024.

Special topics

• Statutory revision
  The GA discussed and adopted the new statutes, except for a few remaining (small or editorial) changes, which the GA delegated to be decided by the board at their next meeting. The new statutes will be published after publication in the Moniteur Belge.
• Revision of membership fees
  The GA also adopted the revision of membership fees (indexation to account for inflation, effective as from 2024). You will find the revised fees here.

Elections

• President
  Stéphane Lauwick was elected as President of EQAR for a three-year mandate, starting on 1 July 2023. Stéphane will be EQAR’s second elected president after Karl Dittrich, who will finish his second (and last possible) term at the end of June.
• 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 and will replace Izabela Suika (as of July 2023), who served on the Register Committee since 2017.
  Inga Lapina was nominated by BUSINESS EUROPE and will replace Anita Līce (as of July 2023), who served on the Register Committee since 2014.
  Lewis Purser was nominated by EUA and will replace Jacques Lanares (as of July 2023), who 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 are 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 will (continue to) assume 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 is Tatjana Volkova, who will replace Pedro Teixeira who resigned recently. All the others were re-elected.