HCERES - High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education

Haut Conseil d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur

Information on the agency's work

The High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES), created by the Law No. 2013-660 of July 22nd, 2013 relative to higher education and research, has replaced the AERES as from November 17th, 2014 (after publication of the decree No.2014-1365 of November 14th, 2014).

The High Council's creation is an outcome of the thoughts being given to the evaluation of research and higher education in France. It is a reflection of the State's resolve to equip the country with an evaluation tool in this field with which it can base its decisions on reliable, fair and transparent elements.

The law tasks the HCERES with the following missions:

- evaluating higher education institutions and their groupings, research bodies, scientific cooperation foundations and the French National Research Agency, or, where applicable, overseeing the quality of evaluations carried out by other bodies;
- evaluating research units on request from the overseeing institution, in the absence of validation of evaluation procedures or in the absence of a decision by the overseeing institution to use another evaluation body, or, where applicable, to have research unit evaluation procedures validated by other bodies. If a unit is overseen by more than one institution, only one evaluation shall be carried out. If the institutions jointly decide to use another evaluation body, HCERES shall validate the evaluation procedures used by this body. In the absence of a joint decision by the institutions to use another body, or in the event that the evaluation procedures are not validated, HCERES shall evaluate the research unit;
- evaluating the programmes and degrees offered by higher education institutions or, where applicable, validating evaluation procedures developed by other bodies;
- ensuring that all missions defined by law and the specific status of higher education and research personnel is taken into account in their evaluations;
- ensuring that activities relating to the dissemination of scientific, technical and industrial culture are properly taken into account in the career progression of higher education and research personnel;
- conducting a posteriori evaluation of investment programmes and private bodies receiving public funding intended for research or higher education.

Activities within the scope of ESG

Higher education systems where HCERES carried out external QA activities

Contact details