Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG)

The Tirana Ministerial Communiqué of May 2024 includes a mandate for the authors of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) to revise the document.

The Communiqué states:
“The application of the ESG promotes trust and transparency within and between higher education systems and facilitates accountability and enhancement. To keep them in line with ongoing developments, challenges and expectations, we invite the authors of the ESG to propose a revised version by 2026 to the BFUG, to be adopted by us at our 2027 Ministerial conference, as well as an adjustment, where required, of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes.”

The primary authors of the ESG are ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE (the E4 Group), in cooperation with Business Europe, EI and EQAR.

The following proposal for the structures for the ESG revision was agreed by the E4. It is based on the approach used for the 2012-15 revision process, which was largely considered fit-for-purpose. EQAR is part of the Steering Committee.

Steering Committee
The revision is coordinated by a Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is composed of one representative from each of the seven primary and cooperating authors, with an additional member from ENQA serving as Secretary of the Committee (organising meetings and taking minutes). The Committee may appoint a permanent chair, or decide that meetings will be chaired on a rotating basis.

The role of the Steering Committee is to:

• Coordinate the overall revision process, including determining timelines.
• Discuss and agree on the key issues for the revision, including scope, structure and topics for
  the standards.
• Agree on and ensure arrangements (timing, modalities, topics/versions) for consultation on
  drafts of the revised ESG.
• Discuss the feedback received and how to address it in subsequent drafts.
• Liaise (through a nominated member of the Committee) with the BFUG.
• Validate the final version to be tabled for approval by the BFUG.

Drafting Group
The actually writing of the new ESG is done by a smaller Drafting Group. The Drafting Group is composed of one expert nominated by each of the E4 organisations, but the Group answers directly to the Steering Committee.

A first meeting of the Steering Committee will be held in early September 2024. A concrete roadmap for the process will be agreed in the first meeting, with a first draft prepared by the E4 during summer 2024.

This roadmap should keep in mind the expected timing of selected BFUG meetings at which drafts will be discussed.

It is expected that the final text should be approved by the BFUG in 2026 (spring or autumn meeting, to be determined), with no further changes expected before adoption by EHEA Ministers at the Ministerial Conference in Romania/Moldova in spring 2027.

As stated in the Tirana Communiqué, the European Approach should be revised in parallel to the ESG. This is intended to be a limited adjustment to ensure that the two documents are aligned, as the European Approach is based explicitly on the ESG.

The revision of the European Approach will be conducted by the same structures as for the revision of the ESG and will similarly involve consultation with appropriate stakeholders and experts.

The revision should start in the second half of the period for drafting the new ESG, so that the main lines of the ESG revision are already clear and can be reflected in the European Approach.

In 2012, in the Bucharest Communiqué, Ministers agreed on the following “We will revise the ESG to improve their clarity, applicability and usefulness, including their scope”, thus acknowledging the report prepared by ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE (the E4 group) on the implementation and application of the “European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance” (ESG).

Ministers mandated the E4 group in cooperation with Education International, BUSINESSEUROPE and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) to revise the ESG and submit their proposal to the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG). This revised version was adopted in 2015.

The revised version of the ESG was presented by the seven organisations to the BFUG after several consultation rounds involving both the key stakeholder organisations and ministries. The many comments, proposals and recommendations received have been very useful and of extremely importance for the revision process. They are reflected in the resulting revised version.

As requested by Ministers, the revised version make the ESG clearer, particularly in terms of their structure and in order to avoid potential confusion with their interpretation. The revised ESG also make a more explicit link to the learning and teaching process in the section on internal QA, and defines the relationship of QAwith other Bologna Process developments that have taken place since 2005 (including those relating to Qualifications Frameworks and learning outcomes).

The revised version of the ESG was endorsed by the BFUG on 19 September 2014 and adopted on 14-15 May 2015 at the Yerevan Ministerial Conference. Ministers adopted the Yerevan Communiqué, which included the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG).

The cooperating stakeholders take the process forward in consensus and as equal partners through a steering group while the technical drafting and preparation is being carried out by a smaller drafting group allowing them to work more efficiently. Further, this structure ensures that knowledge gathered during the MAP-ESG consultations will be fully utilised in drafting the revised ESG.

The Steering Group has one representative from each of the seven organisations involved in the revision process and speaks in the name of the organisation she/he is representing. The Steering Group members may opt for establishing a “revision team” at their own organisations where to carry out preliminary discussions regarding the organisation’s position in advance of meetings.

The drafting group consist of four experts, nominated by the E4 organisations are responsible for drafting revisions to the ESGbased on the direction given by the Steering Group. Drafts are then submitted to the Steering Group for consideration.

For further information about the ESG Revision please visit the official website of the project at: http://revisionesg.wordpress.com as well as the site of the main consultative groups at:

• ENQA http://www.enqa.eu
• ESU http://www.esu-online.org
• EUA http://www.eua.be
• EURASHE http://www.eurashe.eu E
• EI http://www.ei-ie.org
• BUSINESSEUROPE http://www.businesseurope.eu

To further support and promote a consistent, efficient and innovative embedding of the ESG (2015 version) at grass-root level, the EQUIP “Enhancing Quality through Innovative Policy & Practice” project was launched, with EQAR as project partner.

One of the project activities was an analytical study into the early and later version of the ESG “Comparative analysis of the ESG 2015 and ESG 2005”.